'It seems to be that Red Bull are scared of Verstappen'

McLaren boss Zak Brown tells Kieran Jackson why he feels the need to call out Christian Horner’s team and why he believes trust is an invaluable part of a successful F1 unit

- Kieran Jackson

Zak Brown does not have the time, nor the patience, for chancers. The straight-talking Californian-raised McLaren chief executive is revelling in his team's ascendancy back to the top of the sport, fighting the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes. But most of all in recent months, Red Bull.

On track, this front-of-the-pack dogfight has mushroomed between three-time world champion Max Verstappen, Red Bull, and one-time race winner Lando Norris, McLaren. The pair, somewhat uniquely within a sport famous for its fierce rivalries, have a close relationship off-track. A friendship and a bond that nosedived three weeks ago in Austria.

They collided while vying for the lead, following a handful of near-misses, and two races were ruined in an instant. Verstappen was the driver punished by the stewards – a 10second penalty rendered irrelevant on the timesheet as Norris was forced to retire – for not leaving the obligatory ‘width of a car’ on track for Norris at the tricky upwards hairpin.

Yet Verstappen refused to apologise and Red Bull boss Christian Horner laid the blame at Norris’s door, saying over team radio: “He didn’t behave correctly there Max, desperately unlucky.” Brown, aboveboard and unequivocal at the best times, was not having a bit of it. Both then and now.

“It seems to be that Red Bull are scared of Max,” the McLaren CEO tells The Independent. “We’re very honest with our drivers. If nobody tells him that what he did wasn’t within the regulations, why should he think otherwise? But to have Christian come on the radio and actually squarely point the problem at Lando – who are you kidding? Everyone has seen it. The regulations are very clear – you’ve got to leave a car’s width. He didn’t. Why did he have to say anything? It just felt wholly inappropriate.”