Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Future is approaching an intersection with changes for and outside the track

Max Verstappen is preparing for one of the greatest years of his life.

The ruling four -time world champion has set its sights on a fifth straight title, a performance that only Michael Schumacher has achieved, who would confirm his place under the great of all time.

In addition to a major performance step from Red Bull this winter, the Dutchman faces the most serious challenge for his crown so far, as the domestic in the second half of last year is made by McLaren and Ferrari, is expected to continue.

Outside the track there are also changes, because Verstappen and his long -term partner Kelly Piquet expect their first child together, so it goes without saying that he is thinking of the future.

Although only 27, Verstappen has said earlier that he is closer to the end of his career than the beginning. He is under contract with Red Bull until 2028 and has signed one of the most lucrative contracts in the history of the sport just over three years ago. But with so much change on the horizon, an intersection could represent this year.

Sixty-three victories, 40 pool positions, 112 podiums and four world championships, Verstappen and Red Bull place one of the most successful partnerships for Drivers team in F1 history.

Since Red Bull gambled on the youth of Verstappen and placed him in F1 in F1 in F1 in 2015 with his sister team, Toro Rosso, before promoting him to his senior team a year later, both parties promoted the fruits.

Rarely has Verstappen shown serious signs of dissatisfaction or frustration at Red Bull. The only public hint he could watch came early last season when Red Bull Team advisor Helmut Marko was confronted with control over his potential role in the leaks around the research into the Principal Christian Horner team.

Verstappen said that he could not continue in the team without Marko, whose future was quickly resolved after a meeting with Red Bull GmbH director Oliver Mintzlaff. Verstappen kept saying that he wanted a peaceful environment to race. Towards the end of the season it had what he had.

The loading start of the year of Red Bull ensured that Verstappen was linked to a move to Mercedes, for which a driver was needed to replace the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes Chief Toto Wolff has always admired Verstappen and was regularly hinted to sign him last year – and even spoke with Verstappen’s father and manager in the summer – prior to confirmation that Andrea Kimi Antonelli would join George Russell. After the announcement, Wolff said he saw the duo as the future of Mercedes.

Speaking with journalists in December to think about the year, Horner said: “At no time I was worried that (Verstappen) wanted to leave.” Although he understood why there would be interest, Horner noted the public nature of what he described as ‘noise’ around the future of Verstappen. “The serious things are usually done behind the scenes,” he said, “not by the media.” The shocking character of Hamilton’s Ferrari movement last February acts as recent proof thereof.

Horner’s theory would have been to the spirit in mid -January when the Daily Mail reported that the commercial chef of Aston Martin had told potential sponsors about the team’s plan to sign Verstappen with a dizzying price tag of $ 1 billion in the story. Aston Martin categorically denied the report when it was reached by Athletics.

Aston Martin has always been ambitious to become a world champion operation under Lawrence Stroll. The team has a new state-of-the-art factory in Silverstone. In March, the Adrian Newey, the departing chief -technical officer of Red Bull and the most decorated car designer in F1 history. It will also protect an exclusive motorcycle supply from Honda, who has driven Verstappen to all its F1 titles at Red Bull, from 2026. All these factors can be attractive for every driver who wants to move, not to mention the financial power behind the project .

But the Aston Martin project is still a work in progress. At the beginning of 2023, Fernando Alonso appeared as the closest competition at Verstappen and Red Bull, who regularly ended up on stage. The form of the team has since blurred. It was unable to terminate a race higher than fifth last year and has undergone an off-track again this winter, whereby Team CEO Andy Cowell is now taking on the role of Team Principal. The building blocks may come together for Aston Martin, but it still seems to be a few steps that are disrupted F1’s ‘Big Four’ from Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren.

Aston Martin would like Verstappen, but would it appeal to him? (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty images)

The priority of Verstappen is to control a winning car. He had to wait for his time to wait until Red Bull was able to fight for the title, so Dominant was Mercedes until the end of the years 2010, but he has not lost any championship since he could win the machines in 2021. This will be intense the competition of the year, but last year he proved that even without the fastest car it is very difficult to beat for most of the season.

Next year could determine what the last years of the existing Red Bull contract from Verstappen could look like. The new car design and bonnet rules promise to shake up the pecking order and give it potential for one team to clearly attract and dominate, similar to Mercedes in 2014 or Red Bull in 2022 and 2023. The extra meaning of 2026 for Red Bull is that that is the internal motor program, Red Bull Powertrains, which works in collaboration with Ford, becomes the official supplier of the power unit for the team.

Red Bull has the advantage of forming his own motorcycle department. For the first time, the total control over its destination will be and not dependent on the performance of a customer motor. The previous partnership with Renault became sour when the French manufacturer was unable to produce a competitive power unit, making Red Bulle powerless to regularly fight with Mercedes and Ferrari.

But even with the impressive facility under construction in Milton Keynes, it is a big demand to go from a start-up operation to a motorcycle manufacturer with the established names of F1. Red Bull itself will pick the rewards – or pay the price – for his performance level in 2026.

“For us who bring in our own conditions, there are enormous risks attached to that,” Horner said. “But there are also benefits between the integration between the two worlds. We are the only other team than Ferrari that has everything on one campus, under one roof, and we see all the synergy between motorcycle engineers and designers and chassis designers. “

Although the performance of the power unit has been more or less in F1, there is an expectation for some large fluctuations at the start of the new control cycle in 2026 that could be the most important performance differentiator. It will only make it more important for the new Red Bull and Ford project to make a strong start, especially to ensure that Verstappen has the car he needs to keep fighting for victories and championships.

Little or none of F1’s of all time have all their success with a single team. Schumacher wrote most of his legacy with Ferrari, but his first two titles came with Benetton in the mid -nineties. Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna both had spells in several teams, while Hamilton is now starting his third team adventure, after he joined Ferrari in 2025. All with Lotus in the sixties.

It would make Verstappen something from a bitter if he spent his entire F1 career within the Red Bull family. Most large ones seem to go further and prove themselves elsewhere. But given that Verstappen has little care for statistics or records, it is unlikely that this kind of romance would address him in the way it does other drivers. He never seemed like a layman to cherish dreams to race for a certain team, as Hamilton did with Ferrari, so for him would see his career at Red Bull as no big surprise.

That mentality is also the reason why he does not want to race forever. Verstappen celebrated his 200th race in Zandvoort last year and spotted the idea of ​​being 200. “We are certainly halfway through (in my career),” he said, adding that his future was not on his mind after 2028. “I just want to see how things are going, first see the new regulations, if it is fun or not,” said Verstappen.

The following two seasons will be crucial for the future of Red Bull and Verstappen. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

The level of pleasure that Verstappen gets from the new cars that arrive in 2026, of which he has previously doubted how they will drive, will play an important role for how long he wants to race in F1. The moment he stops having pleasure, he will take a break. It is also the reason why officializing F1, namely the controversy around curses that Verstappen’s relatively innocent F-bomb in Singapore last September could influence its future. The debate will probably not disappear after the FIA, the administrative body of the sport, has announced new guidelines for the punishment of so -called ‘misconduct’ with fines, point deduction and even racing bans.

That does not mean that racing will not be part of the life of Verstappen when he decides to stop. He has long dreamed of entering the 24 hours of Le Mans with his father, Jos, and regularly spends weekends with GT -Sportcars alone for fun. His horizon reached further than F1.

“He is very old-school in many ways: he just wants to ride,” said Horner. “I think that part of the noise and the circus around Formula 1 is that is not comfortable with him. As long as he gets the pleasure from what he does, he will do it.

“But I think that as soon as that pleasure drops, he has the power of character and personality to say:” Do you know what? I’m going to drive GTs next year. “He is unique in the sense that the Formula 1 does not define him.”

There is a large, big world outside of F1. Verstappen understands the sacrifices needed to compete for victories in F1, and that can become more acute as soon as he becomes a father. He will be one of only two fathers on the grid, together with Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg, who spoke with it Athletics About how paternity changes someone’s view of racing.

But as long as he remains able to fight for championships, the motivation remains as strong as always. As he said after scoring win number 19 of the 22 races in 2023, the championship has long been a foregone conclusion: “Winning is great. Why would I not want to win if you have the chance to win? “

As long as Red Bull Verstappen can continue to give a happy environment, a winning car and the means to enjoy the sport, there is little reason to think that he can look somewhere else.

Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty images