Brown sees long-term McLaren future for Lambiase

McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown has made it clear that the arrival of GianPiero Lambiase at Woking is more than just another signing – it’s a long-term statement of intent on the part of team papaya.

The highly regarded Red Bull race engineer, famously known as the calm voice in Max Verstappen’s ear,
won’t officially don the McLaren kit until 2028 at the latest.

But the anticipation at the MTC is already palpable. For Brown, this isn't just about poaching a valuable talent; it’s about structural evolution and ensuring the team’s current leadership can fire on all cylinders.

Lightening the load for Andrea Stella

The primary driver behind this marquee signing is the desire to optimize the workload of Team Principal Andrea Stella. Currently, the Italian is a man of many hats – perhaps too many for one person to wear while maintaining a championship-winning pace.

Brown was candid about the necessity of bringing in a heavy hitter like Lambiase to help distribute the pressure.

“Very excited to have GP join us,” he said. “I think my job as CEO is to make sure that we have stability and visibility to the future. “I think we’ve got a lot of talented individuals that have room for growth.

“On the racing operations side, Andrea, in reality, kind of has three jobs. I think we sometimes talk about he has two. He actually has three. He’s the team principal, he runs the racing team, and he also plays a big role in kind of a technical director capacity.”

Brown views Stella as the essential "glue" of the organization but acknowledges the logistical reality of the modern era.

"And these teams are so big that if you’re going to be great in all those roles – I think Andrea is very capable of doing two jobs – but asking them to do three jobs is a tall order," he explained.

"So I think GP will come in and play a great role there, and then my job is always to be looking down the road, as to who can play and grow within the sport. And so certainly, given GP’s experience and his age, is someone I think that can be here for a long time at McLaren and grow.”

A changing guard and the grid's future

The arrival of Lambiase follows a series of high-profile departures from Red Bull, but Brown is quick to dismiss the idea that their rivals are in a permanent tailspin.

Instead, he sees a natural cycle of talent and a tightening of the field where "stability" becomes the ultimate currency.

“I think it would be very foolish to write Red Bull off,” said Brown. “I also think Audi has done a very good job. So I think it would be foolish to not think the other teams are going to move up the grid quickly.

“I think things are only going to consolidate over time, not widen, and we see how quickly the sport can change, and how people quickly can get competitive and then sometimes not.”

While acknowledging the exodus at Milton Keynes, Brown sees a parallel between Red Bull's current "reset" and McLaren’s own journey back to the front.

“I think they have to kind of do a little bit of a reset. They lost a lot of people. Christian, Wheatley, GP eventually, Newey, Dan Fallows. The majority of their pit wall has changed.

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“I rate Laurent [Mekies – team boss], I think he does a very good job. He's technical, he’s young, and I think he’s got to rebuild the people that he lost and rebuild the team, and I have no doubt he will.

“And much like McLaren, we had an immense amount of talent that just needed to be unlocked, I think that’s probably the same as Red Bull. They’ve been very dominant up to not very long ago. So there’s a lot of talent in there, and I think he’ll just need to get it redirected.”

With Lambiase eventually joining the ranks, Brown is reinforcing a philosophy at McLaren built on stability, growth, and foresight. And in the skilled Briton, he sees not just an elite operator, but a cornerstone for the years ahead.

The excitement is real – but so is the intent.

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