Loyalty or few alternatives?
The recent interview given by Max Verstappen to the site RacingNews365 during the Hungarian GP weekend seemed to almost definitively close the market chapter concerning the Dutch champion, at least regarding 2027. Max has not yet explicitly said what he intends to do next year, but the words he reserved for the Austrian team – after criticizing for months and very harshly the car made in Milton Keynes – seemed his way to close internal tensions and get everyone working in the same direction. “I am simply myself within the team. Over the years I have built a great relationship with many people and I say things as they are, I am very straightforward because it is also the way I like to act and they do the same with me,” said Verstappen.
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Of course, some skeptics might also imagine that this rapprochement is also linked to a certain lack of high-level alternatives for the near future: Ferrari has seats occupied by Hamilton and Leclerc, Mercedes with Antonelli’s breakthrough no longer needs to court Max, and McLaren could seriously consider the Dutchman only if the relationship with Oscar Piastri really broke down definitively. This last possibility does not seem so close, despite some tensions between the papaya box and the Australian in recent times.
The need for a public announcement
In the Netherlands, some suggest that the Zandvoort weekend, when F1 returns to the track after the summer break, could represent the perfect opportunity for Verstappen and the team to confirm their mutual commitment for the future. Former Dutch driver Robert Doornbos, speaking in an episode of the podcast Pit Talk, expressed confidence in Verstappen’s staying with the team where he grew up and won everything: “In the next month we will have news – he declared – Max Verstappen’s future will probably be announced at Zandvoort. This is the last Grand Prix in the Netherlands. It is an important moment for Red Bull to keep Max on board and to bind him to the team until 2028. This is what the current contract says and it is right towards the team to say it publicly to the media: ‘I will stay with you, so we can focus on 2027‘. This will be an important topic of discussion“.
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“He must stay at Red Bull – Doornbos added – also because the alternatives have now disappeared. I don’t think Mercedes will push again to get Max as they did in the past. Obviously, they already have the next superstar in their team – he added, referring to Antonelli – and if George continued to have disappointing performances and this became a problem, they can hire any other second driver. At that point, they should no longer try to hire a four-time world champion”.
