Verstappen's Potential Exit: What It Means for Red Bull's Future
Jul.17 - Red Bull will not stand in the way if Max Verstappen wants to jump ship to Mercedes.
That's the claim of two specialist Formula 1 sources - the German-language f1-insider.com, and Italy's major sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The latest developments follow hot on the heels of wild speculation that the quadruple world champion and Toto Wolff met between the British and Belgian grands prix on their respective yachts in Sardinia.
"You don't need a random vacation spot to hold final talks about a contract," Ralf Schumacher noted.
Even Nelson Piquet junior - the brother of Verstappen's girlfriend Kelly - admits there is clearly something brewing.
"They are negotiating," he told Pelas Pistas. "Everyone knows that.
"The final details of the contract are still being worked out, but everyone knows that it is an option."
Piquet said Verstappen would prefer to stay at Red Bull, but Christian Horner's shock sacking reveals the obvious dysfunction. "I heard that they are having trouble attracting and retaining key personnel," said the Brazilian.
"Some of them didn't like the environment there. Certain minor issues with Max's father surfaced, and that bothered people. According to some, it would be harder to bring back key people as long as Horner was involved with the team.
"That's what people have been saying," said Piquet.
He is just the latest insider to suggest that Horner's push for more and more power became the biggest issue. "There was a suggestion to divide it up a bit more, but Horner didn't want that," Piquet said.
"He wanted control of everything - both teams, the engines. Everything. If he'd gotten all the power, it would have been a huge boost for him. And if he didn't get it, he'll receive a whopping sum of almost $100 million."
Indeed, Red Bull is believed to still be negotiating Horner's severance deal. The latest reports also suggest that Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius has given the green-light for Wolff to sign up 27-year-old Verstappen.
La Gazzetta dello Sport claims negotiations will be concluded either way by the end of August, with a decision to be announced straight after the summer break.
It is not decided if George Russell or Kimi Antonelli would depart Mercedes in the event of a Verstappen deal, but Wolff is believed to be open to the idea of loaning Antonelli to Mercedes-powered Alpine for 2026.
Ralf Schumacher continued: "I think Silverstone showed Max that Red Bull won't be able to turn things around despite all their efforts.
"In the end, it's about his career, not loyalty. If Mercedes shows him they're doing everything they can to get him, he'll switch.
"It's also not pleasant for Mercedes to be losing to McLaren, who - after all - use the same engine. With Max, they could turn the balance of power back again in 2026."
One of Red Bull's last hopes of retaining Verstappen could be a final in-season car development push, with new parts due in both Belgium and Hungary.
"We still have half the season plus four sprint races left," Dr Helmut Marko said. "There are lot of points left and the improvements in Belgium should bring us closer to McLaren.
"We don't believe the fight for the world championship is over," the Red Bull advisor concluded.
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I still believe nothing will change at Mercedes & consequently, only Tsunoda's garage side would see a driver change after this season, not to mention the Sardinia thing was declared coincidental & that no meeting took place.
However, IF Max were to leave, this would of course mean a departure for Russell because Antonelli is clearly in the long-term plans, or otherwise he wouldn't have started racing in F1 this year after a single campaign in F2.
Russell could easily switch to Red Bull racing with Hadjar ousting Tsunoda, or alternatively, Tsunoda-Hadjar for them.
Lastly, the claims about Antonelli-Alpine couldn't be more false because firstly Alpine doesn't exist to serve others, nor will they even from next season despite starting to use Mercedes PU, meaning they'll be just like McLaren & Aston Martin in this regard, not to mention their driver priorities are different.
Besides, otherwise Antonelli either wouldn't have started racing in F1 this year or would've started in a lower team (albeit Williams hasn't been interested in serving anymore), if Mercedes had any question marks about his pressure-handling ability in a top team early into his career, & the whole point of starting to race in F1 this year & immediately in a top team under stable technical regulations without much success pressure has been to prepare him for next season with big technical regulation changes by which point he'll have one full season competed in a top team.
All in all, since he started in a top team in the first place, & has performed & come to grips decently, changing to midfield wouldn't serve his career anymore, & thus only be contradictory, hence it won't happen in any case, or it would've happened immediately if it ever were to happen.
Drivers only start in a bottom or midfield team before starting to race in a top team, rather than the other way around, so people should know better than to make up stuff without any substance.
Finally, if Alpine were to let Colapinto go after the season, he'd realistically be replaced by either Perez or Bottas, depending on who doesn't get a Cadillac drive.
Alternatively, Zhou or even Tsunoda, if both Perez & Bottas get hired by Cadillac.
Antonelli had to start in the Merc team,no one else wanted the seat unser Torgers offered terms
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