Stella: “Verstappen in McLaren? He has to wait for the FIA ​​to introduce a third car”

There is no place for orange in the papaya team. If the MotoGP market is experiencing weeks of announcements that will lead to an almost total reshuffling of the starting grid, in F1 there are no shocks on the horizon. Between 2025 and 2026 the drivers waited to evaluate what the balance of power on the track would be in 2026 and it is still not easy to make evaluations between ADUO and developments. The only certainty is that the reference team is Mercedes, but there don’t seem to be any ‘open positions’ given that Antonelli is well beyond the launch pad and apparently Russell is close to confirmation. Charles Leclerc made his renewal with Ferrari official, then entering a negative spiral that had already begun in Canada and Red Bull is waiting to do the same with Max Verstappen who in Austria was finally able to breathe the high altitude air both in a literal and figurative sense. Gianpiero Lambiase’s future arrival at McLaren – which will take place in 2028 – has only fueled speculation that Verstappen is close to doing the same. In an interview granted to Corriere della Sera, however, Andrea Stella dismissed this hypothesis with a ‘provocation’: “What would I say to Verstappen? To wait for the FIA to introduce a third car. If a four-time world champion really knocked on the door, we would take it as a strong signal of great attractiveness, credibility and attractiveness, as was the case with Gianpiero, but not now that we have Norris and Piastri, we are happy with this combination. We believe in model of home-built drivers in which two leaders are Italian, Leonardo Fornaroli who is our reserve and Matteo De Palo who races in F3”.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-01 07:30:00