![](\"https:\/\/www.grandprix.com\/display\/photo?photo_caption=Max+Verstappen%2C+Barcelona+GP+2026&photo_copyright=%C2%A9+Red+Bull&photo_url=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.grandprix.com%2Fjpeg%2Fraces%2Fpbar26%2Fsat%2Fred%2Fverstappen18-lg.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMax Verstappen, Barcelona GP 2026
\u00a9 Red Bull<\/p>\n
The latest claim comes just days after the quadruple world champion attended a meeting in Salzburg with Red Bull’s top leadership, including co-owner Chalerm Yoovidhya and chief executive Oliver Mintzlaff.<\/p>\n
When asked in Barcelona about the gathering, Verstappen refused to elaborate. It’s no one’s business, he said.<\/p>\n
It was planned anyway. It’s not like it just popped up suddenly after Monaco.<\/p>\n
However, according to De Telegraaf journalist Erik van Haren, the meeting did not produce the reassurance Red Bull’s management had hoped for.<\/p>\n
The ideal situation for Red Bull management right now would be for Max Verstappen to say ‘I’m staying’, van Haren explained.<\/p>\n
“Then there would be peace, and the team would be able to attract new staff. This would also make it more attractive to sponsors.<\/p>\n
Verstappen is the most important man at Red Bull – he’s essentially the one carrying the team.<\/p>\n
The speculation comes as Red Bull struggles to match Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren in 2026.<\/p>\n
After Barcelona, Verstappen openly described Red Bull as only the fourth-best team, while van Haren believes the Spanish GP exposed weaknesses in every area.<\/p>\n
After the weekend, he actually reacted a bit resigned, he said. It was an important test here, because Barcelona is an all-round circuit. On each type of corner, they were too slow.<\/p>\n
Much of the uncertainty centres on Verstappen’s well-known exit clauses.<\/p>\n
Verstappen can really activate it for the first time this year, van Haren claims. “In the summer break there is a measuring moment.<\/p>\n
He is now seventh in the championship, and I do not assume that he will suddenly be second.<\/p>\n
Verstappen will start asking himself questions about this in the coming weeks. Of course, there must also be a possible alternative.<\/p>\n
Most significantly, he claims Verstappen has not privately reassured Red Bull officials. He has not indicated internally that he remains guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Austria is going to be a very important weekend, the Dutch journalist continued. They want to slim down the car, and that’s going to be really crucial.<\/p>\n
Former F1 driver Robert Doornbos believes the entire driver market is effectively waiting for Verstappen to decide his next move.<\/p>\n
He believes Mercedes remains the obvious alternative.<\/p>\n
At Mercedes, both drivers have a one-year contract, Doornbos told the Pit Talk podcast. “May the best win.<\/p>\n
I don’t know if there’s still room for the other driver given Max’s situation.<\/p>\n
The next few months will be very interesting.<\/p>\n
Another Dutch former F1 driver has another idea.<\/p>\n
Where is he going? He can basically go anywhere, Christijan Albers told De Telegraaf. “Jos Verstappen may not agree with me. <\/p>\n
But if I were Max, I would drive at Red Bull for another year and in 2028 I would go to Ferrari, following Michael Schumacher, the greatest.<\/p>\n
(GMM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUNE 16, 2026 Max Verstappen has reportedly still not assured Red Bull that he intends to remain with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[944,855,884,911,898,64,63,839,840,892,936,937,922,864,868,843,512,874,906,897,817,836,904,848,845,826,837,813,835,816,867,876,894,841,842,833,908,887,860,909,930,914,939,886,934,832,834,858,941,875,861,850,870,854,900,866,846,880,943,889,878,823,881,863,933,935,910,859,913,844,923,927,896,926,883,938,932,806,805,824,803,804,901,871,852,849,888,872,891,915,822,838,918,916,857,879,893,869,931,885,924,847,882,851,865,925,928,942,929,85,920,921,902,862,919,917,873,940,905,912,895,853,856,877,819,903,899,907,890],"class_list":["post-741450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-adrian-sutil","tag-albers","tag-alesi","tag-ammermuller","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-autoracing","tag-autos","tag-badoer","tag-bahrain","tag-barcelona","tag-benetton","tag-bruno-senna","tag-button","tag-cars","tag-china","tag-david-coulthard","tag-davidson","tag-doornbos","tag-f1","tag-f1-racing","tag-fauzy","tag-felipe-massa","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-ferrari","tag-fia","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-one","tag-formula1","tag-giancarlo-fisichella","tag-gilles-villeneuve","tag-glock","tag-grand-prix","tag-grandprix","tag-grandprix-com","tag-hakkinen","tag-hamilton","tag-heikki-kovalainen","tag-hill","tag-hockenheim","tag-honda","tag-hungary","tag-ide","tag-indianapolis","tag-inside-f1","tag-insidef1-com","tag-jaime-alguesuari","tag-japan","tag-jaques-villeneuve","tag-jarno-trulli","tag-jenson-button","tag-juan-pablo-montoya","tag-kamui-kobayashi","tag-karthikeyan","tag-karun-chandhok","tag-kimi-raikkonen","tag-klien","tag-korea","tag-kovalainen","tag-kubica","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-liuzzi","tag-lucas-di-grassi","tag-magny-cours","tag-malaysia","tag-mansell","tag-mark-webber","tag-mclaren","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-minardi","tag-monaco","tag-montagny","tag-monte-carlo","tag-monteiro","tag-montreal","tag-monza","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-nakajima","tag-nick-heidfeld","tag-nico-hulkenberg","tag-nico-rosberg","tag-paffett","tag-pedro-de-la-rosa","tag-piquet","tag-prost","tag-racing","tag-racingcars","tag-red-bull","tag-renault","tag-robert-kubica","tag-rosberg","tag-rossiter","tag-rubens-barrichello","tag-san-marino","tag-sato","tag-sauber","tag-schumacher","tag-scott-speed","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-sebastien-buemi","tag-senna","tag-silverstone","tag-singapore","tag-spa","tag-sports","tag-spyker","tag-super-aguri","tag-sutil","tag-timo-glock","tag-toro-rosso","tag-toyota","tag-trulli","tag-turkey","tag-valles","tag-verstappen","tag-vettel","tag-vitaly-petrov","tag-vitantonio-liuzzi","tag-webber","tag-williams","tag-winkelhock","tag-wurz","tag-yamamoto","tag-zonta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741450","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=741450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}