Max Verstappen is putting up a wall. Every question he was asked regarding a possible exit from Red Bull received the same answer: “I’m focused on improving the car.” Comments made by Helmut Marko after the Bahrain Grand Prix (“We risk losing Max”) added fuel to the fire in a driver market that will be more compact this year, boosting speculation that Max Verstappen could be tempted by an offer from Aston Martin. Max was firm. “Many people are talking, except me. I can say I’m very relaxed—the only thing I’m thinking about is working with the team to improve the car.”
As for a heated exchange that reportedly took place in Bahrain between Helmut Marko and Raymond Vermeulen (Max Verstappen’s longtime manager), Max dismissed it. “As far as I know, they were just talking, and I think that’s fair. If someone noticed it (as happened in Sakhir), they can interpret it however they want, but in the end, I think there was a bit of frustration for all of us because of the race result. Raymond and Helmut had a discussion, Christian also got involved, they had a conversation and I think there’s nothing strange about it. We all care about what we do. It seems perfectly normal to me.”
With the topic of his future closed, Max Verstappen spoke about the present, where Red Bull is showing inconsistency—from a sensational win in Suzuka to disappointment in Sakhir. “I expect things to go better this weekend compared to Bahrain, hopefully somewhere between the performances we had in Suzuka and in Sakhir. Last weekend we struggled with mid-corner balance issues, we’ll try to sort them out and also hope the track surface here helps us.”
According to Max Verstappen, the car’s current issues aren’t serious enough to justify shifting focus early to the 2026 project. “We have the tools and experience to work both on this year’s project and next year’s. We’re still trying a lot of things with the current car, not just for future developments but also with the setup and other areas we can improve. We need to take it race by race. Right now we’re not the fastest and of course that doesn’t help in the fight for the championship, but the road is still very long. Last year around this time we were in a great position, and we all know how that season ended.” – the Dutchman concluded ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend.
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