Red Bull’s Top Contenders to Replace Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen showed another sign of resilience at the recent Canadian Grand Prix. The four-time world champion has had to endure a difficult start to the 2026 season with a slew of power unit issues from new supplier Ford, nowhere near the levels that the Red Bull team expects. However, a third-place finish in Montreal, behind Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton, kept Red Bull in the conversation even if Mercedes remains the benchmark.
Even so, Verstappen remains visibly frustrated with the sport, with the biggest regulation overhaul in modern times - ushered in at the start of the 2026 season - clearly drawing his ire. Super Max has described the new rules as "anti-racing" and dismissed the new-generation cars as "like Formula E on steroids." After the curtain-raiser in Australia, he said he was "beyond frustrated and upset," refusing to rule out walking away entirely. He has been doing GT3 laps to remember why he started racing. "I love racing," he said, "but you can only take so much."
Martin Brundle told him the complaints are "getting boring." Toto Wolff and Zak Brown have both played down the prospect of signing him, while Ferrari's seats are occupied. That leaves Red Bull as the most obvious route if Verstappen continues in F1, while retirement talk continues to hang over the paddock.
Mercedes Leads the Way in 2026
On the grid, it is Mercedes who have hit the ground running in the new era, just as they did the last time there was a huge regulation overhaul back in 2014. Back then, it was Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg leading the charge. Now, it is George Russell and teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli who are in the limelight, with the latter winning four of the first five Grands Prix after Canada to strengthen his position as the favourite to become the youngest world champion ever.
The odds supplied for this article by Sportaza online sportsbook make Antonelli the 13/10 favourite to win the title this term, while Verstappen is out at 16/1. That will not bother him at all, though, considering the fact that he was a whopping 100/1 outsider to claim his fifth world championship at the midway point of last season, only to come within two points of a stunning comeback win.
In order to win the title, Verstappen will obviously need to remain with Red Bull rather than walking away from the sport entirely. If he shockingly did decide to leave the team and F1 overall, who would be considered the leading contenders to replace him with the Austrian team? Let's take a look.
Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri's agent, former Red Bull driver Mark Webber, is already supposed to have picked up the phone to Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies. If that is true, it is one of the most consequential calls in the modern driver market - a former Red Bull race winner, one of the sport's most respected managers, having a quiet word with the man now running the team where he once drove. According to Grandprix.com, Mekies is able to imagine Piastri as Verstappen's successor. That is not nothing.
Piastri is 25 years old, came agonisingly close to the 2025 world championship, and is described by McLaren team principal Andrea Stella as "the complete package" - a smooth, cerebral driver in the Alain Prost mould who makes a complicated job look effortless. He sits sixth in the championship after bouncing back from a double DNS to start the season with back-to-back podiums: P2 in Japan, and P3 in Miami. Trajectory upward, composure intact.
But consider what he would actually be walking into. McLaren are a genuine title-contending team. He has defending champion Lando Norris pushing him every weekend, Andrea Stella building the infrastructure around him, and a car that can win races right now. Red Bull are no longer setting the pace in the Constructors' Championship, with Mercedes clearly ahead. Why does a 25-year-old with everything in front of him step into that uncertainty?
The swap rumour - Verstappen to McLaren, Piastri to Red Bull - sounds absurd on the surface, until you remember that Verstappen desperately needs a competitive car and Brown has publicly ruled him out. The mathematics do not quite work. But the rumour has entered the paddock conversation, and Webber's influence would be obvious if it gathered pace.
What does Zak Brown do if his prized asset starts entertaining it? Former team principal Otmar Szafnauer and technical expert Rob Smedley have both warned via PlanetF1 that the move could damage Piastri's championship prospects significantly. Piastri is on a long-term deal with McLaren. Break clauses exist in Formula One - but invoking one without consent costs serious money and serious goodwill.
Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz left Ferrari with his head held high and his reputation enhanced 18 months ago. He arrived at Williams and immediately delivered - a podium in Baku in 2025, against machinery that had no business being on the rostrum. Then 2026 arrived, and Williams produced a car so overweight it missed its pre-season shakedown entirely. Sainz admitted to Crash.net it could take "months," possibly the final third of the season, to see a "proper turnaround," but P9 in Miami brought a desperately needed pair of points.
F1 Oversteer reported in late April that Sainz is now in "pole position" among the realistic Verstappen replacement candidates - and separately noted that Red Bull would pursue Sainz over the rest of the grid, in part because of his Toro Rosso roots and existing connection to the Red Bull family. And yet. Sainz has spent his entire career demolishing the narrative that he is second choice.
Does he genuinely want to spend the next three years being measured, every single Sunday, against a man who won four titles in the same car? Former Toro Rosso driver Ricardo Patrese cautioned that accepting the seat "might be a mistake." Grandprix.com says no active conversations exist. Sainz has publicly reaffirmed his Williams commitment, but the opportunity, and the paycheque, might be too large to turn down.
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