{"id":768785,"date":"2026-06-30T00:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T00:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/768785\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T00:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T00:16:10","slug":"explained-where-max-verstappens-future-stands-after-big-f1-step-fresh-mclaren-talks-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/768785\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: Where Max Verstappen\u2019s future stands after \u2018big F1 step\u2019, fresh McLaren talks twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull Racing didn\u2019t win the Austrian Grand Prix, but team boss Laurent Mekies had cause to be just as relieved on Sunday night as victor George Russell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His team had brought a major upgrade to the weekend, and as the season ticked past the one-third completion mark, Mekies said the success or failure of the new parts would be decisive in whether or not Red Bull Racing could storm back from its poor start to contend for regular wins or even the title.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will depend a lot on how this package works,\u201d he said ahead of the round.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started with a large gap compared to competition, probably more than a second at the season start.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably halved that gap with the Miami update, and hopefully we get much closer with this one as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

The point of sport is to compete, so the value of an effective upgrade is self-evident.<\/p>\n

But left unsaid was the criticality of the update to the team\u2019s most important performance part: Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s thinking on his future dominated the narrative in the early months of the season, when he threatened to quit Formula 1 if it didn\u2019t change its contentious new engine rules.<\/p>\n

Agreement was eventually secured among the disagreeable stakeholders, with a compromise two-season timeline locked in for the watering down of the hybrid elements of the engine, going some way to addressing the criticisms of Verstappen and virtually all his contemporaries.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s since suggested that he will continue racing next season in anticipation of a better a sport in 2028, the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n

Left unclear, however, is whether his future remains with Red Bull Racing.<\/p>\n

Verstappen is widely reported to be free to quit the team if he\u2019s not inside the top two in the drivers championship around the mid-season break. Currently seventh and 58 points behind Russell in second \u2014 and 98 points off the lead \u2014 he is all but certain to get access to that exit clause.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman has long suggested he\u2019s here for a good time, not a long time. He knows first-hand the cyclical nature of F1, having been locked out of title contention during Mercedes\u2019s first championship era before taking a turn dominating the sport himself until last season.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s to make the most of what could be his final chapter in Formula 1 \u2014 however long that\u2019s going to be \u2014 he knows there\u2019s a chance Red Bull Racing won\u2019t be the place to do it.<\/p>\n

Rumours of a potential exit have come and gone, but ESPN this week reported that Verstappen had refused to give Red Bull Racing assurances<\/a> that he will stay with the team beyond the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Let the silly season begin.<\/p>\n

Antonelli calm despite Russell victory | 00:42<\/p>\n

VERSTAPPEN TO McLAREN?<\/p>\n

According to the UK\u2019s Daily Mail, Verstappen and McLaren have commenced \u201cpreliminary talks\u201d<\/a> about the Dutchman joining the team.<\/p>\n

McLaren already has reigning champion Lando Norris under contract until the end of next season and Oscar Piastri under lock and key until the end of 2028.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky Sports at the weekend, McLaren CEO Zak Brown denied the prevailing rumour that he would engineer a straight swap between Verstappen and Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be very surprised if Lando or Oscar went elsewhere, because they are very happy,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course they have contracts, but besides that, we\u2019re very happy with them and they are very happy here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf for some strange reason someone slipped on a banana peel getting out of the tub, then yes, of course \u2014 Max is a four-time world champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

That last line is a statement of the obvious rather than a smoking gun or an example of a politician attempting to give themselves wriggle room. Any team boss who said they wouldn\u2019t sign an interested Verstappen if they had a seat available would be lying.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also not the first time Brown has denied a move<\/a>, having fielded similar questions when McLaren announced it had poached Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen\u2019s race engineer, from Red Bull Racing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sky Sports has since reported too that talks took place but that they were initiated by Verstappen\u2019s management.<\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, didn\u2019t deny talks but told Germany\u2019s Bild he wasn\u2019t haggling over a contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were no negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting the context that McLaren would be, on paper, a sideway move at best from Red Bull Racing. Though McLaren is the reigning constructors champion, there\u2019s been no signs of last year\u2019s success carrying over into the new regulatory era.<\/p>\n

McLaren also an engine customer, and although having a Mercedes motor is clearly a benefit, conventional wisdom states that a team with its own power unit will always have a higher performance ceiling. It\u2019s also worth remembering that over the next two years the rules are swinging towards boosting the internal combustion engine over the hybrid elements, and the FIA has assessed that Red Bull Powertrains has the best petrol motor in the sport.<\/p>\n

But with no-one denying the chat outright, instead this seems like a case of Brown was doing what every team chief does: keeping tabs on who\u2019s available. The same goes for Verstappen\u2019s management, whose job it is to know which seats could be up for grabs.<\/p>\n

‘Tough races test you psychologically’ | 00:21<\/p>\n

IT\u2019S NOT ALL ABOUT NEXT YEAR<\/p>\n

That Verstappen\u2019s management would be openly talking to teams \u2014 don\u2019t forget those ongoing Mercedes rumours, for example \u2014 is even less surprising given the state of the driver market.<\/p>\n

Though there nominally as many as 17 drivers out of contract this season<\/a>, in practice there are no available seats among Red Bull Racing\u2019s three frontrunning rivals.<\/p>\n

McLaren is spoken for. Charles Leclerc just signed a long-term deal to stay in Maranello into the next decade, while Lewis Hamilton has at least another year to run on his contract. Mercedes has kept Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s respective statuses ambiguous, but reports suggest both are now locked down for next year too.<\/p>\n

Having these rumours floating around the paddock \u2014 and Verstappen\u2019s management has proven well adept at getting its message out through the media in the past \u2014 serves two purposes.<\/p>\n

The first is to keep Verstappen in the loop for a move for 2028, when some frontrunning seats could open up for him. This comes with the added benefit of giving him time to assess how the competitive order develops over the next 12 months or so given the from guide behind Mercedes has been confusingly inconsistent so far this season.<\/p>\n

But it also means Verstappen and his management are using all their available political leverage to motivate Red Bull Racing to find form.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s not a coincidence that these rumours fired up shortly after reports of another high-profile defection from the team to a rival.<\/p>\n

Chief engineer Paul Monaghan, who has been with the team for the entirety of its Red Bull Racing era, will reportedly quit to join Cadillac in the coming seasons.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest in an extensive and high-profile brain drain from Milton Keynes, following the pending departure of Lambiase (McLaren) and the exits of chief designers Rob Marshall (McLaren) and Craig Skinner (resigned), chief mechanic Lee Stevenson (Audi), Verstappen front-end mechanic Ole Schack (resigned) chief technical officer Adrian Newey (Aston Martin), sporting director Jonathan Wheatley (Audi, since resigned), head of strategy Will Courtenay (McLaren), team principal Christian Horner (dismissed), motorsport adviser Helmut Marko (retired).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of rumours about the team and the team personnel,\u201d team boss Mekies said, rebuffing but not denying a question over Monaghan\u2019s future. \u201cI don\u2019t think it will be right for me to comment on every single rumour that comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Personnel churn through the F1 environment regularly and frequently, but Monaghan is emblematic of what at the moment is a specifically Red Bull Racing problem \u2014 that the staff leaving are extremely experienced and had previously been considered integral to the team\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

They also coincide with Red Bull Racing failing to turn 2023, the most dominant season in history, into a new golden era. Rather than kicking on, the team lost the constructors championship the following year, and Verstappen didn\u2019t have the equipment to defend his drivers title last season.<\/p>\n

Hamilton & Verstappen do battle again! | 00:39<\/p>\n

WHAT DOES HE HOPE TO ACHIEVE?<\/p>\n

Just because Verstappen doesn\u2019t have any suitable options for a 2027 seat away from Red Bull Racing doesn\u2019t mean that he can\u2019t throw his weight around, pushing the team to work harder on the car and on replenishing its talent pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to finish this adventure together with Red Bull,\u201d Vermeulen told Dutch paper <\/a>De Telegraaf<\/a>. \u201cThe spirit of Red Bull and the spirit of Verstappen, they fit together.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we do need a package that allows us to compete at the front. That has always been the foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel at home at Red Bull, but we do want to be competitive. Ultimately, Max wasn\u2019t born to compete in the midfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message has been received loud and clear at Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax wants a fast car, always wanted a fast car, and he completely trusts us in making sure we are doing everything we can, short term and long term, to ensure return to success and continuous success,\u201d Mekies said ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend. \u201cWe look at the result on the track; that\u2019s the only thing that matters, and hopefully those results will improve rapidly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not asking Max every week if he\u2019s going to stay. Max has made clear to us that he wants to continue with the team. It\u2019s equally clear that he needs a fast car for him to be happy with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a topic for us. The topic for us is get the car back to where we want it to be. If the car is back where we want it to be, there will be no discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m convinced that Max wants to see continuous progress, and he knows very well that you don\u2019t go from one second to zero in no time, but he wants to see that path, I\u2019m sure, to continue to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why the upgrades brought to Austria were so important \u2014 and why Mekies would have been so relieved on Sunday night to see that they\u2019d worked.<\/p>\n

Leclerc and Piastri clash in Austria! | 00:42<\/p>\n

IS THE AUSTRIA SUCCESS REPEATABLE?<\/p>\n

Red Bull Racing\u2019s Austria upgrade was considerable both in terms of the number of new parts and, according to engineering coverage, the way it changed the team\u2019s aerodynamic concept.<\/p>\n

Almost every part of the car was modified, from the sidepod inlets, engine cover, floor and floor boards to the rear suspension, rear wing and exhaust.<\/p>\n

The package got off to a rocky start, with reliability problems affecting both drivers through practice. The team also took the blame for Verstappen\u2019s qualifying crash, revealing that there had been some sort of aerodynamic failure at the rear of the car on his final lap.<\/p>\n

But in race trim there was no doubting the step forward, with Verstappen securing a season-best second place just 1.6 seconds behind Russell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first time I felt like actually I could fight for the win,\u201d Verstappen said after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be that close to a win is great effort from the team. They have worked really hard to get these upgrades on the car here, and this is the first time in the race where I felt really competitive and I could push a bit more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has already been a very big step forward compared to the previous races.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upgrade confirmed Red Bull Racing\u2019s position at the top of the development leaderboard among the frontrunners, a measure of how much each team is moving closer to the fastest lap of any given weekend.<\/p>\n

Development rate, frontrunners<\/p>\n

1. Red Bull Racing: improving by 0.120 seconds per weekend<\/p>\n

2. Ferrari: improving by 0.082 seconds per weekend<\/p>\n

3. McLaren: improving by 0.033 seconds per weekend<\/p>\n

4. Mercedes: steady<\/p>\n

Red Bull Racing\u2019s trajectory would have been even more steeply positive had Verstappen completed his qualifying lap, which had been only 0.1 seconds slower than Russell\u2019s pole time at the end of the second sector.<\/p>\n

There are still things to improve, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf of the race I ran a car that was not in top shape,\u201d he said, describing a problem at the rear of the car. \u201cPlus my brakes today were not really functioning well compared to the rest of the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Bull Ring is also only one circuit of 22 this season. It also sits at high altitude, and this weekend it featured scorching temperatures, with some measurements returning readings in excess of 60\u00b0C for track temperature.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also seen this year that the benefit of a big upgrade package lasts only until another team brings its own update. McLaren almost beat Mercedes with its Miami upgrade, Mercedes then pulled ahead with its own upgrade in Canada, and then Ferrari won with its upgrade in Barcelona. In Austria it was Red Bull Racing\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n

But Verstappen is clearly happy to take the upside for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a pretty long road to be here and actually to sit here in the top three and have a real shot at it. That is already very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dutchman\u2019s words were a pressure release for Mekies and his team.<\/p>\n

Now he just has to keep the big results coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull Racing didn\u2019t win the Austrian Grand Prix, but team boss Laurent Mekies had cause to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-768785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768785","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=768785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}