Zak Brown pays the ultimate ‘compliment’ to Max Verstappen at the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Follow us on Google Discover

Max Verstappen qualified second for the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday, joining Lando Norris on the front row. Verstappen is trying to keep his faint title hopes alive this weekend.

The very fact that Verstappen is still in contention is admirable. His teammates have only scored 28 points combined.

There’s a school of thought that Red Bull’s car is built around Verstappen, which is why so many of the team’s number two drivers have struggled lately. But McLaren’s record of 14 wins and 31 podiums from 21 races shows that they clearly have the best car this year, and the reigning champion has had to be near-faultless to stay in touch.

Despite that, McLaren boss Zak Brown appeared to criticise Verstappen this week. Speaking to The Telegraph, he called the Dutchman a ‘bruiser’ who’s ‘too aggressive on track’.

Zak Brown makes his admiration for Max Verstappen clear

Brown sought to clarify these comments in a conversation with De Telegraaf in the Las Vegas Grand Prix paddock. He actually admires Verstappen’s fighting spirit, likening him to Ayrton Senna.

Given that Senna is Brown’s favourite driver ever and one of the greatest in F1 history, this can be seen as the ultimate compliment.

“I called him a bruiser, a fighter, but that’s a compliment,” said Brown. “That’s what I call Ayrton Senna, too, and he’s my favourite driver of all time.”

Brown added that his comments had been taken out of context. For instance, he called Verstappen arrogant but later qualified that by saying that some of the sport’s ‘greatest champions’ share the same characteristic.

The American texted his rival ‘immediately’ to defuse the situation in case Verstappen was offended by his remarks.

There’s one comment Zak Brown shouldn’t take back

Brown also said that ‘everyone’ at Red Bull is ‘subservient’ to Verstappen. He called them a ‘one-man team’ who prioritise keeping their star driver happy ‘above all else’.

Given that Red Bull themselves have acknowledged their priorities, this is a reasonable take. Team shareholders reportedly called him to discuss the sacking of Christian Horner, whereas other drivers were simply informed by staff.

Still, Brown’s effort to ‘dispel any tension’ – in the words of De Telegraaf – epitomises the new era of relations between McLaren and Red Bull.

Brown and Horner did not get on at all, but the former sees an opportunity for a constructive new start now that Laurent Mekies has taken over. His comments this week may not have gone down well in the Red Bull camp, so it was important that he clarified what he meant.