No commitment
Max Verstappen once again left his future in Formula 1 undefined in the run-up to the Belgian Grand Prix. The Dutchman avoided answering whether he will continue at Red Bull next year, after the links with McLaren and his comments about a possible retirement.
“I don’t want to come here, say yes, no, and this and that about my future. I already said many times that if there was something new, I would say it myself,” he declared on Thursday.
Relationship with the boss
Verstappen highlighted his bond with Laurent Mekies, who has been leading the team for one year after replacing Christian Horner. He described it as “really good.”
“I get along very well with Laurent. We talk a lot on the court, but also off the court. Everything is very open and transparent.”
The pilot also referred to the failures in the rear wing that caused two accidents in Austria and Great Britain. Red Bull will return to a previous design for Belgium. “We’ll go back to the old one and then see when the new one is ready again,” he explained.
It is the third consecutive year that Verstappen has kept his future in suspense. He has a contract until 2028, but with early exit clauses. A reported meeting with McLaren fueled the rumours, although Zak Brown claimed that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are “not going anywhere”. In addition, Verstappen’s trusted engineer, GianPiero Lambiase, will join McLaren as competition director.
The champion has also been critical of the 2026 specification cars, due to their electrical dependence and artificial overtaking. He did not rule out leaving F1 if he did not find them fun to drive.
