The rumor of Max Verstappen’s departure from Mercedes will animate the first part of the year 2024. And the quadruple world champion spoke on this track through comments reported by the Spanish newspaper Marca and the site Next- gen Auto.
Max Verstappen will drive for Red Bull in 2025. What will happen for 2026 and the years to come? A priori, the Dutch champion will not move. His contract runs until the end of the 2028 season and he doesn’t seem to want to move:
“I am also in a very great team. I’ve had a lot of success with Red Bull. It’s also like a second familyso these are considerations that you cannot take too lightly before deciding to leave. And I’m not someone who goes from left to right very quickly anyway”.
Sterile discussions with Mercedes
However, he took care to leave a door open for other teams. To Mercedes in particular. The German team, through its boss, Toto Wolff, did everything to poach him so that he could succeed Lewis Hamilton. Discussions that were unsuccessful:
“We always talk to each other. And I’m not lying about the fact that we sat together. But this is not a problem in itself. In the end, I really like where I am”.
However, Max Verstappen is careful to leave a door open for a future departure:
“You never know what might happen next year, or in two years. I can’t control that… We need to make improvements to the car, but I think it’s very logical”.
Not the same speech in 2025?
Max Verstappen being a competitor, it is likely that the results he will obtain in 2025 and then in 2026 with the new regulations will influence his speech. As long as the car allows him to win, he will continue with Red Bull. But what will happen the day Red Bull will be less efficient, because it will inevitably happen one day. Especially since the competition got considerably closer at the end of the season. Red Bull let the constructors’ title slip away from McLaren and in the second half of the championship we saw seven drivers capable of fighting to win Grand Prix.
Mercedes, Aston Martin, Ferrari as future team
The day Max Verstappen decides to leave, there should be many teams wanting to welcome him. The first challenge will be to provide him with a high-performance car capable of winning titles. Then, you will have to be able to cover your salary. We are still talking about more than 70 million euros per year. Together, applications are limited to three teams: Mercedes, Aston Martin and Scuderia Ferrari.
Mercedes, the need to find a successor to Lewis Hamilton
To replace Lewis Hamilton, the German team dug into its academy by establishing Andrea Kimi Antonelli. She is especially counting on George Russell to become the leader of the team. The Briton has accumulated enough experience and expertise to be so. However, his contract ends at the end of the 2025 season. Depending on his performance, he could have to look elsewhere. Ditto for Antonelli. If the experiment turns into a fiasco, Mercedes will need a headliner. Except that the tense relations between Russell and Verstappen prevent the two men from being associated.
Aston Martin to realize a pharaonic project
Another way out for Max Verstappen would be to join Aston Martin. Lawrence Stroll’s team has invested heavily in establishing itself as a key team in Formula 1 with a new ultra-modern factory and the recruitment of numerous engineers, notably Adrian Newey. The latter spent almost 20 years at Red Bull and his work contributed to the success of Williams and McLaren in the 1990s – 2000s. Above all, the 2027 window seems ideal. Fernando Alonso’s contract ends at the end of the 2026 championship, if the car performs well, Max Verstappen could be seduced. And taking care of his salary wouldn’t be a problem.
Scuderia Ferrari, to become a legend
The last team capable of welcoming Max Verstappen to F1 is none other than Scuderia Ferrari. Here too, the question of salary will not be a problem. The question of sporting challenge does not arise. Every driver in the world dreams of winning while wearing a red suit. The Verstappen – Ferrari association would have a hard time, especially after the passage of Lewis Hamilton.
