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The former F1 executive and broadcaster gives his opinion on Max Verstappen’s future, the World Drivers’ Championship race and Lando Norris’ performance.
Mark Gallagher believes Lando Norris will remain at McLaren even if he’s beaten to the World Drivers’ Championship title by his team-mate, Oscar Piastri.
Norris is 31 points behind Piastri in the standings and the latter is the clear favourite in the F1 betting, but Gallagher has been impressed by the British driver this season and believes McLaren feel the same way.
In our exclusive interview, Gallagher also discusses Max Verstappen’s more mature attitude this season and the four-time world champion’s future at Red Bull or elsewhere.
Max Verstappen seems more positive and has even sent words of encouragement to Lando Norris. Is this a more mature Max Verstappen, and has the media quieting down over Christian Horner helped him relax?
It’s extraordinary to say it, but at just 27, Max is starting to feel like the elder statesman of F1. He’s in a really interesting position. He knows he can’t win the Drivers’ Championship this year, but he’s got the best seat in the house to watch the McLaren drivers go at it.
I think he’s enjoying just getting the car onto the podium — he knows that’s the most he can achieve this season. There’s no pressure. He’s already a four-time world champion and has a long-term contract at Red Bull.
I suspect he’s very calm about his future, especially with Red Bull starting their partnership with Ford in 2026. Everyone’s waiting to see what happens. It’ll go one of two ways: either Red Bull come out with a brilliant car and Max stays, or they don’t — and if that happens, you can bet Max will be looking at alternative options for 2027. I suspect we all know that could be Mercedes.
It’s also really interesting to see him giving encouragement to Lando. It shows that the animosity the media love to create doesn’t necessarily reflect what these drivers are like off-track.
Max has definitely matured — not that he was immature before, but he’s clearly in a good headspace now. After all the turmoil at Red Bull over the last 18 months, things have settled, and that’s a good thing. Whatever was going on behind the scenes must have been creating a tough atmosphere, and it seems like they’re finally past that.
Lando Norris has come under a lot of scrutiny this season in his title battle with Oscar Piastri. He signed a multi-year contract last year, but if he misses out on the championship to Piastri and struggles to shake off some of the narrative surrounding him, could he leave McLaren sooner than we think?
No, I don’t think there’s any chance of that happening. McLaren rate him very highly, and I’ve been massively impressed with Lando’s speed in both qualifying and races.
Looking at the data and analysis of individual laps, there’s hardly anything between him and Oscar. They’re both really strong — it’s a fantastic pairing.
Unfortunately, someone has to win the championship. But the other shouldn’t feel damaged by that — that’s just the way things fall.
I don’t think missing out would hurt Lando’s trajectory. That failure in Zandvoort wasn’t his fault. Yes, he’s made mistakes in the past, but the real question is: do you learn from them?
I think Piastri has made a few steps forward, and Lando has a very similar pace to him. The key now is whether Lando can address the so-called fragility — and I say “so-called” because the media love to speculate about his self-doubt.
He spoke about his mental health on the High Performance Podcast, but the truth is, he’s at the pinnacle of world motorsport now, and any perceived weakness — real or imaginary — gets magnified.
I think the time for talking about fragility is over. This is war. And in this war, Oscar Piastri is the opponent. It’s a gloves-off battle now.
