Zak Brown shuts down paddock rumours and secures the future of team principal Andrea Stella at McLaren
The news of Gianpiero Lambiase’s arrival in Woking has sent shockwaves through Formula 1’s top teams. The official confirmation of the deal came on Thursday, April 9, when McLaren published the announcement on its website, confirming GP’s move to the Papaya team starting from 2028 — after the expiry of his current contract with Red Bull. The fallout from the news then triggered a wave of fanciful speculation suggesting that Stella was on the verge of leaving the team. This, in turn, prompted a swift reaction from Zak Brown.
The Italian-American engineer is regarded as a key figure and a man of great substance across the entire F1 paddock. It is no coincidence that over the last decade his role has seen him working closely with four-time world champion Max Verstappen as his race engineer since the Dutchman’s debut with Red Bull in the 2026 season.
This factor has strongly fuelled the unfounded rumours portraying Stella and McLaren as two entities set to part ways in the coming years, precisely following Lambiase’s actual arrival. The speculation became so widespread that it prompted McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown to intervene.
“I can confirm that this rumour is completely nonsense? Yes, I confirm it,” Brown stated firmly. “It’s total nonsense. There are certain teams that spread and fuel rumours like this, but this tactic doesn’t work with us.”
“Andrea is very attached to McLaren and we are very attached to Andrea. We couldn’t be happier with the current situation. You’ll see him wearing the McLaren shirt for a good while yet. Possible tension between him and Lambiase? They will work together 100%, and it was actually Stella who made the final decision to hire Gianpiero.” , the McLaren Racing CEO concluded.
Photo: McLaren F1 Team, Red Bull Content Pool.
