The fact that Max Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, has decided to walk away from Red Bull at the end of his current contract and join McLaren has inevitably led to suggestions that the Dutchman could follow. After all, he has said before that he has no interest in working with any other race engineer in Formula 1.

The truth is that, while the idea of Verstappen one day racing in Papaya is a possibility, it remains improbable. For now. McLaren is happy with their current pairing of defending champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri - both of whom are tied down to long-term and lucrative contracts. And they currently see no reason to change that.

But if Verstappen does become a genuine option? All bets will be off. No team, not even one as happy with their current situation as McLaren, the defending constructors' and drivers' champions and with two young and extremely talented racers on the books, would fail to consider adding one of F1's most successful stars ever.

It's certainly not the most likely outcome. Right now, all signs are pointing to the Dutchman potentially quitting F1 altogether. He has made no secret of how much he hates racing the new generation of cars, and, having already achieved everything he wants to in the sport, he could walk away without looking back.

But it's also entirely possible that he could decide to carry on, but perhaps not with Red Bull whose on-track performance is severely lacking compared to that of their rivals right now. And if he did get the chance to follow his great mate 'GP' to McLaren? That would be a very intriguing outcome and a scenario which sparks questions over what Verstappen driving for McLaren might look like.

First, we'd need to know which driver will go. Norris is the world champion and the one who has been with McLaren longest, having graduated from their academy system, while Piastri was an external recruit, a star snatched from the fumbling grasp of Alpine.

Both are extremely quick, well-liked and very marketable. Piastri is about 18 months younger, so no real difference there. On paper, there's very little to separate them at all. Yet it's hard to imagine any other outcome should McLaren decide to recruit Verstappen than Piastri being the one given the boot.

McLaren would dismiss any suggestion of favouritism out of hand. They have their 'Papaya Rules', their racing "principles", as team principal Andrea Stella likes to put it, and a strong ethos that there is no number one driver. Chief executive Zak Brown also repeats these priorities publicly but has always given the impression, indirectly, that Norris is his favourite.

So let's assume Verstappen would be paired with Norris. On paper, in terms of each driver's individual skill, it would surely be the strongest driver line-up in F1, rivalled possibly only by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Ferrari. But this is not an individual sport.

As McLaren always loves to point out, it's all about the team. Though they have been criticised at times for their micro-management of their drivers, it has to be said that they have done something up to now that has been achieved only very rarely in F1 history: let both drivers challenge for the title without them falling out.

But if Verstappen were Norris' team-mate rather than Piastri? Fat chance. Not yet a champion and still relatively early in his F1 career, Piastri had no right to expect prioritisation in any circumstance other than one in which he was significantly ahead of his team-mate in the championship, which he never was at any point last year.

Verstappen won't think like that. He has been top dog at Red Bull ever since he established himself as that by seeing off Daniel Ricciardo. Under Christian Horner, Red Bull eschewed the modern approach of abandoning the driver hierarchy and continued with the Dutchman as their undisputed number one. The side effect was a constant struggle to find a team-mate for him who would not be crushed by the pressure of living up to the Dutchman's standards.

Norris has a better chance than anyone who has been paired with Verstappen at Red Bull. Unlike most of those, he is still finding his feet in F1. He is vastly experienced for a 26-year-old and is now a world champion. It is hard to imagine the Brit being completely eclipsed, as others have been, in the garage next to Verstappen's.

It's similarly easy to predict that there would be a lot less harmony. Norris and Verstappen are good friends away from F1, but we saw that tested to the limit in 2024 as they duelled on track, with the McLaren man posing only a minor threat to the Dutchman's bid for a fourth consecutive F1 title. Put them on even terms in the same car, and there's no way there'll be any yielding, one way or another.

Max Verstappen joining McLaren would be brilliant entertainment and an eye-catching combination of one of F1's finest drivers ever representing one of the sport's grand old teams, rather like Hamilton at Ferrari. As stated before, it's not a particularly likely outcome right now. But it sure is fun to think about.