F1 champ Max Verstappen hails driver who could stop him moving to McLaren

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F1 News & Gossip

Max Verstappen hails driver who could stop him moving to McLaren

One to watch for the future!

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 8 August 2026 16:44

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Take out your crystal balls everyone, Max Verstappen's allowed us to take a look into a possible future.

In case you haven't been keeping up with your racing wonderkids recently, Verstappen Racing signed 15-year-old Belgian speedstar Dries van Langendonck last month, making him the team's first ever junior driver.

As well as being the newest member of the four-time F1 champion's team, Van Langendonck has been in the McLaren Driver Development Programme since he was just 13 years old, and is tied in through at least 2031 – at which point he'll be 20.

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Verstappen spoke recently to RacingNews365 about the vast potential he sees in the teenager, making it clear that he sees F1 in Van Langendonck's future. If so, that future may well be at McLaren.

Hey, isn't there a Dutch four-time world champion being linked with a future move to McLaren, maybe later in his career when he's played out the thread with Red Bull and when the Norris/Piastri partnership has run its course? Wouldn't it be the most delicious irony if the child prodigy that Verstappen's helping ended up fighting him – and beating him – to a McLaren seat in the future?

Now, you know that's unlikely. We know that's unlikely. There's every chance that Verstappen's out of the sport by the time the youngster's even ready to start running in free practice sessions (as he's keen to remind us). There's also every chance that Van Langerdonck never makes it to the big time.

Let's just dream though, for a second, that this could happen. Okay? Okay.

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Verstappen: Talent doesn't always beat hard work

Speaking of that praise from Verstappen...here it is! "At the end of the day," he said, "if I see real potential in a person, because, in the end, the dream is Formula 1, right, for some of these drivers, then if I really feel like he's the one who can make it, I go for it.

"That's what I really felt with Dries. It's not because we speak the same language, but because of what he was doing from a young age. You could see he was naturally quick, always there. It probably takes him less effort to be there. So that's talent.

"Talent doesn't always beat hard work, so it's about trying to find that nice compromise between being very talented and helping him with everything that comes alongside that talent. Of course, I think he has already had good support up until now, with, you know, his parents doing everything they could with their know-how.

"I think now it's the next step, together with the McLaren programme, to make sure that he can make it to Formula 1 by making the right decisions, because it's so crucial that he always ends up in the right team to be able to show his talent.

"Besides that, of course, it's about the preparation for every new series he goes into. We just make sure every opportunity is there for him to take. Then it's up to him to take it."

F1 Max Verstappen McLaren