Is this Max Verstappen’s ‘easy way out’ of Red Bull?

Max Verstappen stays!

But Max Verstappen also might find it much easier to leave this time next year if 2026 does not go to plan…

Rumour: Revised Max Verstappen contract clause for F1 2026

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust

Any relief that came with Verstappen confirming that he would stay at Red Bull last summer was tempered by the suggestion that the game had changed.

Officially under contract until the end of the 2028 season he remains.

Yet no sooner had he extinguished those pesky rumours – more intense than ever before – of a move to Mercedes ahead of the 2025 summer break, more rumours emerged that Red Bull had struck some sort of compromise with Verstappen.

He would given them another year. Maybe more.

But if 2026 – Red Bull’s first season of producing its own engines – backfired, the team would not stand in his way if Max wanted to leave.

Go deeper: Max Verstappen’s Red Bull contract

F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2026 grid?

Max Verstappen only has himself to blame

All the talk last year was of Verstappen being allowed to walk away if he found himself below a certain position – third or fourth depending on whom you were speaking to – in the drivers’ championship at a certain point in the season.

So it caught the eye earlier this week when it was reported by the Times that Verstappen could be free to leave Red Bull if he is lower than second in the championship at the time of the 2026 summer break.

If true – and the team has historically declined to comment on the specific details of driver contracts – the raising of that bar fits the bill of Red Bull offering Max an easier escape route in 2026.

And it won’t be just Mercedes in for him this time either.

Merc was the obvious next destination for him last year given the team’s history of acing new engine rules (2014, anyone?) and the widespread rumours of the team’s preparations for 2026 being significantly more advanced than the opposition.

Yet 2026 will offer the first tangible indication of what Aston Martin – Adrian Newey‘s Aston Martin – will look like in F1’s new era with the development of that project another 12 months down the line.

Mercedes still might be the place to be in 2026. But 2027? 2028? 2029?

Certainly, it was hard to view Aston Martin’s recent reported pursuit of Verstappen’s long-serving race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase – now also confirmed to be staying where he is for 2026 – without interpreting it as the latest step in its bid to get its hands on Max himself.

Red Bull?

All the team can do is do what it’s always done by continuing to provide Verstappen with a competitive car and hoping – making – the rumours go away.

The mood music surrounding the Red Bull-Ford engine had been – how to put this politely? – unflattering for much of 2025.

Ever since Christian Horner, appearing in his final FIA press conference at Silverstone last year, admitted that it would be “embarrassing” for the established manufacturers if the newcomers were to produce a better engine for 2026.

Horner’s comments were echoed by his successor, Laurent Mekies, who agreed with Toto Wolff’s assessment that Red Bull’s new engine program was the F1 equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.

“It’s as crazy as it gets to take the decision to do your own power unit, as Red Bull has done,” Mekies told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets at Monza.

“These guys have been doing it for 90 years or something like that, so it would be silly from our side to think we’re going to come here and, right from the start, be at Ferrari’s or Mercedes’ level.

“That would be silly.”

Yet late last year came a little hint that 2026 might actually be something for Red Bull to approach with excitement, not trepidation.

Rumours last month claimed that Red Bull is among just two manufacturers, along with Mercedes, to have identified a loophole in the new engine rules related to compression ratio.

If true, it is likely a function of RBPT signing a number of staff from Mercedes High Performance Powertrains – and gaining from all the knowledge, experience and expertise – since its inception.

If Red Bull’s strong end to last season (six victories in the final nine races) had convinced Verstappen that the team had rediscovered its purpose, a relatively seamless start to F1’s new era might tempt him to stay beyond 2026 after all.

And did the recent comments of Oliver Mintzlaff, the chief executive of new investments and corporate projects at Red Bull, reveal a quiet confidence over what 2026 might bring?

“What’s important to say is that I’m not afraid of any performance clause in his contract,” Minztlaff told De Telegraaf in December when asked about Verstappen’s future.

“The most important thing for an athlete is that he sees that everyone in the team is giving their all for him.

“And I think Max is impressed with the way the results and the atmosphere in the team have turned out this year.

“Of course, Max always wants to win and have the best possible car, but so do we.

“As long as Max feels that we are working on that and doing everything we can, I think he will remain loyal to us.

“He also sees how much we have invested in our own engine.

“Don’t forget that we are an energy drink brand and what a unique step this is. I feel that there is enormous mutual appreciation and loyalty.

“For me, there is no doubt that Max Verstappen will end his career at Red Bull.”

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!

Read next: Why F1 2026 changes everything in hard reset for Red Bull