The Verstappen Question
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Which team will Max grace with his presence next season? The fashionable question of late.
He’s been linked to both Mercedes and Aston Martin. Max hasn’t denied that his management team have been talking with Mercedes. But, in my opinion, this is the “due diligence” bit and the talks aren’t for a seat next season. His management are just scoping out all the options.
Max has a contract up to 2028 with RBR, but is he likely to leave earlier, especially now that Horner is gone?
There’s a lot of chat that this makes it almost certain that he will now stay until forever. Until he retires, pretty much. This is following on from the Horner vs Jos Verstappen personality clash we’ve seen playing out. Without Horner in the picture, Jos wouldn’t have a problem with leaving his son in the team. This sounds like Max is about 10 not 27, but here we are.
Without Horner, there’s no one for his dad to pick fights with every week. This leads to fewer questions about this, which is what Max ultimately wants; less distraction.
But, there’s a counter argument that it makes it more likely Max will leave. Last year when the “horndog Horner” allegations broke, Max, while not being vehemently pro-Horner, was saying that he needed both Horner and Helmut Marko. With Marko, Max was saying “if he goes, I go,” and with Horner he wasn’t far off. There seemed to be trifecta that Max needed.
Fleshing this idea out further, if Horner had lost Max to another team, having pinned so much of his persona, let’s say, on Max, he would never outlive the political cost of losing him. In which case, it is now easier for Max to leave RBR. And if Max goes, perhaps Helmut Marko could go as well.
There’s been whispers that Red Bull GmbH are starting to see the amount they are spending on Max as excessive. This fits in with the makeover that Red Bull GmbH has had of late after the death of Dietrich Mateschitz. Previously, RBR were given a bunch of money and just allowed to go racing. Now, the team is being seen as an advertising and investment item.
I don’t think Max is too concerned about the money, but he might be a bit miffed with a pay cut, in that anyone would likely be miffed with a pay cut. It would be a sign of diminished respect between parties. Lewis Hamilton was miffed enough after being given a short contract with Mercedes to start playing with the idea of going to Ferrari.
But, without knowing why Horner was fired/relived of his duties it’s hard to identify the path likely to be taken. Having said that, there seems to be a lot of change in RBR lately, and Max does not like change. A frequent utterance in Max’s interviews last year during the horndog Horner “phase” (I don’t think it’s over, but it’s left the media spotlight) was that he wanted stability. He just wanted peace and quiet to go racing.
But where would he go? There’s hints that the Red Bull Powertrains project isn’t going well, which would further lure Max away. The Mercedes 2026 engine is said to be another good one, and there’s been Toto Wolff’s ongoing flirting in Max’s direction that hasn’t really stopped since last year.
And if he were to join Aston Martin, can you imagine him partnering Fernando Alonso? Max seems so easy to wind up and Fernando knows all the tricks and then some. That would be delicious to watch. But we're unlikely to get it, not just because of the Lance Stroll situation, because of what Max demands of his team and his teammate.
Fernando would never put up with even being thought of as second driver—we've seen this—and Max can't exist without an almost subservient teammate. We can but dream.
Elsewhere around the top of the grid, McLaren wouldn’t accept him, and Ferrari are financially committed to Lewis Hamilton, and by prophecy to Charles Leclerc. Cadillac are too much of an unknown for him to join at this point. There’s always chat that Max will take a sabbatical for 2026, observe the situation, and come back with whoever looks good. I think he’ll stay with RBR for 2026 and then leave.
He’s such a potent rumour subject because he all but refuses to speak to the media while his father/manager continues to seed rumours of Max going somewhere else.
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A wild idea
If Max Verstappen left Red Bull Racing, the team would have to reconfigure itself. He has been “propping” the team up for so long his absence would be a gaping hole. In the short term there would be a points drought, no question. RBR have been aware for a while that if they lose Max, they are lost.
But longer term, with the team looking to build a car for both drivers, not just this hypothetical fastest possible car RBR has become fixated on, the team could return to the front in a healthier way. By which I mean, as healthy as any F1 team can be when everyone in it has to be forced to take time off.
The important part of this idea, though, is that the “Verstappen camp” won’t be around to throw a hissy fit if Max’s teammate beats him. Being beaten by your teammate is a natural part of racing, but this is something that Max does not handle well at all.
The media doesn’t talk much about drivers having tantrums because of a bad outcome, presumably because it’s bad for the sport. But if we mention this stuff, maybe we can… I don’t want to say shame them into doing better, but basically shame them into doing better.
Is it time we set Max free? Free from the interminable press conferences, free from the nagging questions of every penalty point, free from media days.
