Max Verstappen says that Zak Brown's claim that Red Bull employees are seeking to leave the team is the American simply trying to "stir things up".

Speaking in Miami, days after Adrian Newey announced his decision to leave the Austrian team, Brown claimed that the move would be the first of many dominos to fall at the Milton Keynes outfit, stating that McLaren has seen an increase in the number of CVs coming from the team.

"He obviously wants to stir things up," says Verstappen in reaction to Brown's claim, even though the three-time world champion's own future at Red Bull is being questioned.

"For us as a team we can't do anything with comments like that," he added, according to Motorsport.com. "From his point of view, I understand it of course, because everyone is trying to attract our people and that is completely normal in the world of Formula 1. But I'm not really interested in those things... I see the headlines, but I don't even click on them."

Brown wasn't the only one seeking to make as much as possible from Newey's departure over the Miami weekend, with Red Bull managing director, Oliver Mintzlaff warning Toto Wolff to keep his eyes off Verstappen as Mercedes seeks a replacement for Lewis Hamilton, the Silver Arrows boss making no secret of his desire to lure the three-time world champion to his team.

Worryingly - for Red Bull - though Verstappen is contracted to Red Bull until 2028, he admits that many of those in Milton Keynes are the subject of long-term contracts but that "human aspects" could come in to play.

"In life you can never guarantee everything," he said. "It's also possible that I won't wake up tomorrow morning, so in the end you never know things one-hundred percent for sure in life anyway.

"Of course, a lot of agreements are made, but in the end it's also about everyone being happy with their work and feeling appreciated within the team. There are a lot of human aspects involved as well."