Max Verstappen: Staying with Red Bull Until Career End

Verstappen dismisses speculation about future moves, affirming his commitment to Red Bull as his ideal final team in Formula 1.

Max Verstappen has stated that he “clearly intends” to remain with Red Bull Racing until the end of his current contract, which runs until 2028.

Despite rumours suggesting that the three-time world champion was considering a potential move to Mercedes or Aston Martin for 2026, Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko hinted this week that Oscar Piastri could be brought in to fill the void should the Dutchman depart.

“There’s a lot of hype,” Marko remarked with a smile, referring to a war of words with McLaren and his claim that Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber, is urgently seeking to negotiate with Red Bull.

However, Marko played down his teasing comments about the discussions with Webber.

“With Webber managing Piastri’s career, he’s just spending more time trackside again, and we enjoy reminiscing about the old days when he was a Red Bull driver.”

Regarding Red Bull’s genuine interest in the Australian, Marko added: “As far as I know, he still has two years left on his contract.”

Verstappen, meanwhile, told AFP in Mexico that he also sees himself remaining with his current team for now.

“It’s true that we’ve had some difficult moments, but my focus was more on improving our performance. Other teams have caught up; they’ve done a great job and understood their cars better. On our side, we had a very strong year last season, and we tried to improve the car, which we managed to do, but not in every area. That’s something we need to work on for next year.”

He denied any loss of confidence in Red Bull.

“For me, nothing has changed. I’m here to perform, I want to win, and we want to climb back to the top together. We want to win races again, which hasn’t happened for a while.”

As for the rumours suggesting that exit clauses might allow him to leave Red Bull easily if he wished, Verstappen insisted that it is “clearly the intention” for him to stay.

“I signed a long-term contract with the team, and in a perfect world, I will finish my career here. For me, nothing has changed since I signed my contract. It’s true that we’ve had difficult moments, but my focus has always been on finding performance and trying to improve things.”

Difficulties under control?

After the Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen described his F1 car as a “monster” to drive. How are things now? Have off-track matters and Newey’s departure had an impact?

“We’ve had a few tough races, but I think we’ve understood our issue. For the remaining races, the priority will be to find the balance of the car again and, more generally, to make it faster.”

“As for the rest, it’s hard to say… Decisions regarding the 2024 car were made before all this. As a team, we have always remained very focused on the performance side of things. We’ve faced some challenging races, but we want to put that behind us and focus on the future.”

Last weekend, battling with Lando Norris for 3rd place towards the end of the US Grand Prix, Verstappen admitted he enjoyed the contest… Is that more stimulating than dominating as he did in 2023?

“Yes, but last year, I also enjoyed winning and being in front—I really appreciated last season. And winning with a 30-second lead is also very satisfying.”

With a 57-point lead over Norris, is he confident about his chances of retaining his world title?

“We’ll do our best—there are never any guarantees, a lot can still go wrong, but we just need to do a good job, and from my side, I need to be on point every weekend.”