Montoya advises Verstappen not to move to McLaren.

      Juan-Pablo Montoya, who has competed in Formula 1, NASCAR, and IndyCar at different points in his career, believes that Max Verstappen should think carefully before moving to McLaren. Of course, for now, all discussions on this topic are purely speculative, which the team management from Woking is trying to deny in every possible way; however, it seems that McLaren could indeed be Verstappen's next workplace if Red Bull cannot convince him to stay with the team with which he has won four championship titles. More than twenty years ago, Montoya spent a season and a half at McLaren and left amid controversy, and although it is a completely different team now, he advises Max to weigh everything carefully, even if his long-time engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will take on the role of racing director there in 2028.

      "Let's start with the fact that Gianpiero is not going to be his race engineer at McLaren; he will have a much higher position," Juan-Pablo discussed in his podcast MontoyAS. "If Max does move to this team, he will interact with Lambiase, but not directly, as he will hold a higher rank in the hierarchy, you understand? For Gianpiero, moving to McLaren means he will find himself in a completely new world. This team operates on its own programs, and he will still need to get along with new colleagues who have their own mentality and a completely different approach to work. Gianpiero will have to learn all of this, and such a process takes time. But that's just one point.

      The fact is that everyone understands now: everything at McLaren is built around Lando. How comfortable will this be for Max, who is used to everything revolving around him at Red Bull, and that was his advantage? Verstappen may be faster than Norris, but beating Lando won't be so easy. The McLaren chassis is built according to Lando's preferences; he sets the direction in working with the car. And what will happen if it doesn't suit Max, and the team doesn't want to make the changes he needs? That's why I say: moving to McLaren won't be such an easy thing for him."