Former Max Verstappen ally issues loyalty ‘to a point’ warning to Red Bull

Max Verstappen’s former performance coach has said he is “loyal as hell” to Red Bull but “only to a point” ahead of an influential 2026 season.

The vast regulation changes that are coming next season have every team hopeful of moving further up the grid in terms of competitiveness, but a particular focus will be on Red Bull and Verstappen.

Max Verstappen loyal to Red Bull but to a point says former coach

The last regulation change in 2022 moved Red Bull swiftly to the front of the pack, allowing Verstappen to win three titles in a row in the ground effect era, but the team has lost key personnel, most notably Adrian Newey, and has surrendered their Constructors’ Championship to McLaren.

Red Bull’s drop in performance put sharp focus on Verstappen, whose 255 points account for 93.75% of the team’s total this season, and whether he would even stay with the team in F1 2026, never mind through to the end of his contract in ’28.

The Dutchman put those 2026 rumours to bed, confirming during the Hungarian Grand Prix that he will be at the team, but his former performance coach Scanes believes that loyalty will be tested.

“I think the fastest team and Max will always be linked, and no one’s going to know what happens in 2026,” Scanes said on the High Performance podcast.

“You know, we’ve just seen that there’s going to be three tests. So, nine days of testing, which I think they’ve had since like 2016, 2015, something like that. So no one knows who’s going to be the fastest.

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“There’s engine changes, there’s oil changes, there’s differences in batteries. All this stuff is way outside my scope, but you can see that there could potentially be a shake-up. He’ll have the choice of wherever he wants to go.”

“Max is loyal as hell. He will stay loyal, but only to a point. So, I don’t know. I think he’ll give Red Bull a chance. But if they don’t deliver within that year, then all cards are on the table.”

Almost every team on the grid would be open to the prospect of Verstappen joining but Mercedes and Aston Martin have most frequently been the ones linked with the 27-year-old.

Team principal and part-owner of Mercedes Toto Wolff has often made his intentions known of his desire to sign Verstappen but said in August that it was never a realistic obligation.

“It is my obligation as a team principal here to explore what a four-time world champion is going to do in the future and what his situation is,” said the Austrian. “And any driver out there will say that Max, as it stands, is probably the best. That’s not a secret.

“And every team needs to go for the best driver. Sometimes you can’t have the best at the moment, sometimes you need to wait for the time, and sometimes you need to develop the best. And for me today, what we have is a very good combination, and let’s see what it is in two or three years. It may be different.

“It never came to the situation where it was like: ‘Okay, we are going to do this’. Neither on Max’s side, nor on my side. It was never that one dimension of ‘have we got a shot’? It was more: ‘Does that make sense from the Mercedes perspective? And does that make sense from the Verstappen perspective?’

“Could that mean our paths will never cross because the timings are wrong? Well, that can happen.”

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