{"id":574004,"date":"2026-03-30T10:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574004\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T10:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:54:08","slug":"f1-2026-max-verstappen-contract-clause-could-lead-to-bombshell-retirement-red-bull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574004\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 2026: Max Verstappen contract clause could lead to bombshell retirement, Red Bull"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen\u2019s future in Formula 1 is hanging in the balance with the four-time world champion reportedly prepared to walk away from the sport.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has struggled to replicate his usual dominant form as the grid continues to come to grips with the new hybrid era of cars.<\/p>\n

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The last time the 28-year-old finished outside the top five three times in a row came nine years ago.<\/p>\n

He has continually voiced his frustration with the regulation changes to the sport and following the Japanese Grand Prix his anger continued.<\/p>\n

He told the BBC that he was \u201cnot enjoying the whole formula behind\u201d this season\u2019s championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just think about, is it worth it?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr do I enjoy being more at home with my family? Seeing my friends more when you\u2019re not enjoying your sport?\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he could walk away from the sport, he replied that he was \u201cthinking about everything inside this paddock\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really anti-driving. Then at one point, yeah, it\u2019s just not what I want to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd of course you can look at it and make a lot of money. Great. But at the end of the day it\u2019s not about money any more because this has always been my passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Red Bull superstar remains under contract until the end of the 2028 season, contract clauses revealed on Monday could see the star walk away earlier.<\/p>\n

\"Piastri's<\/p>\n

If Verstappen isn\u2019t inside the top two in the drivers\u2019 standings by a specified date he can leave, according to The Race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to the clause, it\u2019s reported he doesn\u2019t need to notify Red Bull of his decision until October. Meaning he can elect to depart, watch how things unfold before ultimately walking out of the garage.<\/p>\n

After the opening three races of the season, Verstappen sits in ninth place in the drivers\u2019 standings with just 12 points to his name.<\/p>\n

While speculation continues to run wild that the Red Bull superstar could leave the sport, there remains the possibility that he could switch teams.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has been linked with a shift to Mercedes since midway through last season with talk he could take the place of George Russell alongside Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff however moved to shut down suggestions the team would look to lure the Dutchman.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone said that the Max discussions will eventually come back on the table again,\u201d Wolff told the Press Association. \u201cBut no, there are not any Max discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not be happier with the two drivers that we have. The positioning of the two, with the age gap and how it aligns well with our strategy, means there are not any discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Max to Mercedes thing for now is not on. The situation is completely transparent. We have clear contracts with both drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Formula 1 season will not return until the Miami Grand Prix on May 3, after the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races scheduled for April were cancelled because of the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen\u2019s future in Formula 1 is hanging in the balance with the four-time world champion reportedly prepared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-574004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}