Amid all the hullabaloo about a theoretical future with McLaren and meetings with Zak Brown, Max Verstappen has signed up for co-patronage of maybe the highest-upside driver asset McLaren has in its Formula 1 junior programme.
The timing is surely a coincidence, but the announcement is fascinating - and unusual - all the same.
Dries Van Langendonck, a 15-year-old Belgian who currently races in Formula 4, is now a member of 'Verstappen Racing' in addition to being part of McLaren's junior programme.
Van Langendonck is as prized an asset as drivers get at that phase of their career - a ludicrously prolific and highly successful karter (world champion and European champion) turned immediate success in car racing (he won the F4-spec Formula Winter Series in the off-season and is currently on track to be this year's British F4 champion).
His entry under the Verstappen Racing umbrella is intended to offer him "additional support and guidance" from Verstappen himself, complementing his McLaren-led development.
"He has been a big talent for a long time already in go-karting, and I think you can spot quite quickly when someone is a little bit more special than someone else," Verstappen said of Van Langendonck during the Belgian Grand Prix media day.
"That has carried on with what he’s doing right now in Formula 4, and that’s why it’s just very exciting to try and help him and guide him, of course hand in hand with McLaren’s side as well, to make the right decisions for his future.
"He wants to get to Formula 1, and I’m just trying to make sure that will happen in the future. It’s honestly a very exciting project to be part of."
This kind of co-operation over a protege between a top F1 driver and a team they're not part of is not unprecedented in recent F1 memory, as Gabriel Bortoleto was a McLaren junior and then signed with Audi while remaining part of Fernando Alonso's A14 Management stable (with Alonso himself not affiliated with McLaren nor Audi).
But it is a new venture for Verstappen, as part of a continued expansion of his Verstappen Racing efforts.
Its driver roster otherwise comprises the simracer squad, simracer-turned-GT3 driver Chris Lulham, GT3 driver (and son of Verstappen's manager) Thierry Vermeulen and Verstappen's father Jos (specifically his rally efforts).
In Van Langendonck, for the first time, Verstappen has taken a driver under his wing whose sole career ambition is clearly to make F1.
"We're just going to try and help him achieve that," Verstappen added, "by making, hopefully, the right calls and decisions in terms of where he has to race, what he has to do, help him on the simulator side as well, and just try to give him more and more experience.
"He’s only 15, so there’s still a lot to learn naturally, but luckily, I think, in terms of raw speed, that’s there."
It is important to note this will not have been a McLaren-led initiative, so it in no way reflects anything about Verstappen's future aside from the apparent growing independence of his overall racing ambitions from Red Bull and specifically Red Bull's F1 team.
There is thought to have been a connection between the families before this announcement. However, there is no indication that McLaren is in any way unhappy about this - as Van Langendonck is getting the added benefit of access to the Verstappen Racing Pro Simulation resources.
"He’s very good for a 15-year-old," Verstappen said of Van Langendonck's simulator prowess. "Compared to myself when I was 15, he’s very, very good."
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