Will he, won’t he leave? The latest Verstappen state of play – Max Verstappen is once again the obsession of the Formula One paddock, although it not for his record breaking feats of 2023 and neither is it about his driving style. The Max to Mercedes chronicle rolled on further during the Austrian Grand Prix when both Toto Wolff and George Russell claimed he had been in talks with the silver arrows team.

Despite his desperate plight in terms of claiming a record fifth consecutive F1 drivers’ title, Verstappen over the past weeks and months has appeared to be as relaxed and amusing in the much hated interviews he has to give. Some interpret this as a weight being lifted from his shoulders because a decision has been made on where he will be racing in the near future.

The Red Bull driver appeared remarkably unfazed in Austria, when Kimi Antonelli sent his Mercedes into turn 3 like a torpedo, wiping out himself and Verstappen before half a lap of there Grand Prix was complete. Max chatted away amicably to Antonelli as they extracted themselves from the crash site, again some believe this demonstrates he is not going to rage against his future team.

 

 

 

F1 jounro claims inside knowledge

Reports are emerging from Italy today, that the deal between Max Verstappen and Mercedes is now done, yet unlike Leo Turini who is known for his access to the Ferrari inner sanctum, this Italian source has a less credible connection with the Mercedes F1 team.

The veteran German F1 writer, Ralf Bach, also claims some inside knowledge on the latest state of play between Max and Mercedes. Speaking on the F1-insider podcast he claimed: “I had many conversations, and some opinions were solidified. I don’t want to say who said what, you have to protect your sources, but I have gained a very clear impression again, that actually turned out to be true.”

“There is a Plan A with Verstappen, which is if Mercedes really makes him feel like they want him at all costs, then Plan A is to go to Mercedes. Plan B is if, for some reason, Mercedes do not commit, is to stay at Red Bull, he will see how the year goes, and then make a decision in the new year, with the new engines, new regulations,” Bach concludes.

Yet theres a total lack of certainty in anything Bach has to offer. He has ‘had conversations which have solidified his opinions’ is hardly a concrete beginning to the theory. Secondly, its a pretty easy conclusion to come to that  ‘Max either leaves Red Bull this year or stays’ being Bach’s conclusion.

Extreme pit-wall instructions given to Leclerc

 

 

 

Aston Martin fell away

Aston Martin were allegedly in the running to sign the world champion, but ill advised comments from Adrian Newey will have closed that door in Verstappen’s mind, even if for a couple of years. Speaking of the new Aston Martin simulator, Newey said in May: “It needs a lot of work because it’s not correlating at all at the moment, which is a fundamental research tool. Not having that is a limitation.

“But we’ve just got to work around it in the meantime and then sort out a plan to get it to where it needs to be. But that’s probably a two-year project in truth.” Ralf BACH in fact extended his prophetic claims further, suggesting Verstappen was happy to remain at Red Bull if a key figure was removed from the team.

“I heard there is a clear condition,” says the German. “He will only stay at Red Bull if he stays when Christian Horner is no longer there as team boss. So, he’s standing in the way somewhere, and there’s already a confrontation, and the Red Bull bosses have to make a decision now.

“Regardless of Mercedes’ decision, if they want to keep Max, it can only be done with a new team boss.” This is a fanciful notion, given the tenure of drivers is most often shorter than that of an F1 team boss. Horner built the Red Bull team from the ashes of there Jaguar F1 programme starting in 2005 and despite the death of Red Bull entrepreneur Didi Mateschitz who always backed Horner, he has has the support of the majority Thai shareholder.

Vettel to Red Bull

 

 

 

Why Mercedes?

The reason Mercedes is deemed the future F1 home of Max Verstappen is simply based on what happened the last time F1 introduced a new power unit. Mercedes blew the field away with both the eye watering sums it spent on developing the V6 turbo hybrid and in turn delivered such performance it blew the competition away. So with a new engine coming in 2026, Mercedes will be top dogs again, huh?

To prevent a team like Mercedes from dominating the sport for eight consecutive seasons, the FIA have been much more careful in how the new powertrain rules have been designed. Each manufacturer is limited to the amount they can spend in the development phase and they are also restricted in the amount of bench testing they can perform.

Further, the architecture of the power units means however they are designed, the peak power should be accessible to a number of different interpretations. Further in 2014, there was no Honda for Mercedes to compete with and even Red Bull are joining the power unit party with their collaboration with Ford.

Disaster for F1

 

 

 

Verstapen refuses to commit to RBR

Such is the massive change in the regulations, there is no way of knowing which team will come out on top and so surely Verstappen would be wise to stay put for 2026, just in case someone unexpected like say Audi, nail the new F1 brief.

Even we’re Verstappen to enter some kind of pre-contract for 2027 with Mercedes, this will never see the light of day while he remains publicly committed to Red Bull Racing. All this said, Verstappen has refused to be categoric about whether he will be driving for Red Bull next season. His latest comment when asked at the recent FIA press conference about his Red Bull future was: “I don’t think we need to talk about that.

“I don’t know, do you want me to repeat what I said last year? I don’t know. It’s the same answer. I don’t even remember what I said last year, really. But again, it’s not really on my mind. Just driving well, trying to push the performance, and then we focus on next year.”

 

 

 

Wolff speaks on Bottas to Alpine rumor

Formula One teams switching their drivers mid-season has in modern times become something of a regularly occurrence. In 2023, Daniel Ricciardo replaced the over hyped Nyck de Vries in the Red Bull junior team, only to suffer an injury in Zandvoort which then saw him replaced by Liam Lawson for five race weekends.

The following season Ricciardo was offered the AlphaTauri seat full time, only to find himself replaced by Lawson again following the Singapore Grand Prix for failing to live up to expectations. Similarly Williams decided they’d had enough of the hapless Logan Sargent and replaced him for last year’s Italian Grand Prix with the Argentinian rookie, Franco Colapinto.

Of course there was no place on the grid this year for the promising South America driver as Williams decided that Sergeant’s full time replacement would be Carlos Sainz, who signed a long term contract with the Grove based outfit. Colapinto with his huge financial backing was shuffled over to Alpine as a reserve driver, although it was generally considered he would soon replace the team’s rookie driver for this season, Jack Doohan.