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<\/p>\nMax Verstappen will be able to exit his Red Bull Racing contract this year, deepening speculation over a rumoured McLaren move that would see Oscar Piastri lose his place at the title-winning team.<\/p>\n
Widespread reports suggest Verstappen\u2019s contract contains an escape clause that will allow him to quit the team if he is outside the top two on the drivers title table by the mid-season break.<\/p>\n
After spinning out of the British Grand Prix, he\u2019s now 78 points off second place and 103 points off the lead. With only 25 points available for a victory and two races before the break, it\u2019s now mathematically impossible for him to move into the top two by the shutdown.<\/p>\n
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Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n More important than the points, though, is the context.<\/p>\n Not only has Red Bull Racing failed to develop a consistently competitive car, but the capricious RB22 has thrown Verstappen off the road two weekends in a row.<\/p>\n In qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix he made heavy contact with the barriers at the outside of turn 9, a 230-kilometre-per-hour bend.<\/p>\n He spun off the road at a similar speed at Stowe late in the British Grand Prix, the same corner that broke Michael Schumacher\u2019s right leg in 1999.<\/p>\n PIT TALK PODCAST: Charles Leclerc is the second non-Mercedes winner of the season after claiming victory at the British Grand Prix, and after another scoreless grand prix for title leader Kimi Antonelli, could unreliability cost Mercedes the championship? | Listen to Pit Talk here ><\/a><\/p>\n Both incidents were related to problems with the team\u2019s trick flip-around rear wing. Though it closed before both crashes, the downforce-producing airflow appears to have not reattached as quickly as it should have, which essentially has the same effect as the wing not closing at all.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s super-dangerous because you can really hurt yourself two times,\u201d a clearly frustrated Verstappen said in Silverstone.<\/p>\n \u201cI was lucky in Austria. I was lucky here. That\u2019s why you get really fed up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n The incident is emblematic of what appears to be an eroding relationship between driver and team.<\/p>\n But what would be the most consequential driver move of the season may not end up involving just fed-up Verstappen.<\/p>\n Piastri is copping strays in the process.<\/p>\n Verstappen crashes out in British GP | 02:19<\/p>\n WHAT\u2019S GOING ON AT RED BULL RACING?<\/p>\n Verstappen\u2019s grievances with his team aren\u2019t new. They date back more than a year, to Red Bull Racing\u2019s troubled start to the 2025 campaign that hamstrung his championship defence.<\/p>\n The team had entered decline surprisingly soon after its 2023 domination thanks in part to an ongoing brain drain from its Milton Keynes headquarters and the internecine political warfare behind the scenes for control of the team following the 2022 death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz.<\/p>\n Around this time last year, when Verstappen was toying with the possibility of triggering his exit clause \u2014 though his results ultimately didn\u2019t satisfy the criteria \u2014 he and his management team were said to be unconvinced by Red Bull Racing\u2019s technical leadership following Adrian Newey\u2019s resignation. At the time there were suggestions that Verstappen\u2019s feedback wasn\u2019t always listened to, causing friction.<\/p>\n Horner\u2019s dismissal \u2014 influenced but not decided upon by the Verstappen camp, even if the Dutchman himself has a good relationship with the former boss \u2014 resulted in a shock to the team that revitalised its championship fortunes, and Verstappen got to within two points of what would have been a sensational championship victory.<\/p>\n This year, however, Verstappen has been underwhelmed by what the team has developed with a clean slate under new regulations.<\/p>\n Many of last year\u2019s reservations have returned.<\/p>\n It was notable that in Canada he said the team had ignored his set-up preferences, leaving the car slowest among the frontrunners.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve pointed it out so many times already, but sometimes you just have to let them feel for themselves that it doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n The same frustration bubbled up in Silverstone, where Verstappen told the team to take the car off the grid to start from pit lane with a new engine and different set-up after being outqualified by teammate Isack Hadjar for only the second time this season.<\/p>\n His request was rebuffed, and he ended up spinning out of the race.<\/p>\n \u201cF*** this car,\u201d he radioed angrily. \u201cUnbelievable. F*** this.\u201d<\/p>\n (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n Team boss Laurent Mekies contended that Verstappen had been running third when he crashed, which wouldn\u2019t have been possible had he started from pit lane, though the argument is academic when the result was a car stuck in the gravel owing to its own technical failure.<\/p>\n Inflaming this particular irritation is that Verstappen\u2019s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase \u2014 who is also the team\u2019s head of racing \u2014 has been cut out of some technical conversations by technical director Pierre Wach\u00e9, according to Dutch paper <\/a>De Telegraaf<\/a>. Lambiase will join McLaren by 2028, and speculation suggests he will start a period of gardening leave after this season.<\/p>\n Though it is not unusual for outbound staff to be excluded from sensitive technical matters, Lambiase\u2019s position as both Verstappen\u2019s chief ally and technical conduit has reportedly served to complicate the already delicate situation.<\/p>\n But the frustration goes both ways.<\/p>\n ESPN has reported that Verstappen met with top brass at Red Bull in Austria last month<\/a>, where he was asked for assurances that he would continue racing with the team next season. Stability, they said, would be important to selling the team to prospective new staff.<\/p>\n There has been further speculation since then that the meeting included an offer from Red Bull to buy out Verstappen\u2019s exit clause \u2014 that is, pay him to have the option removed from his deal.<\/p>\n He declined to guarantee he would stick with the team for the duration of his contract and reportedly rebuffed offers to have his exit clause bought out.<\/p>\n According to Dutch paper De Limburger\u2019s podcast <\/a>Paddock Access<\/a>, his refusal angered Red Bull administrators, who feel Verstappen\u2019s threats to quit demonstrate a lack of loyalty to the brand that backed his teenage Formula 1 debut and powered him to his four championships and personal fortune while allowing him to dabble in extra-curricular racing activities most other teams would forbid.<\/p>\n Verstappen, of course, might argue that only once in his four title-winning years did his teammate finish second \u2014 in 2023, when Sergio P\u00e9rez took until the penultimate round of the season to clinch the runner-up position with the most dominant car in Formula 1 history. In other words, his titles belong to him, not the team.<\/p>\n Leclerc wins amidst safety car confusion | 03:32<\/p>\n WHAT\u2019S PIASTRI GOT TO DO WITH IT?<\/p>\n Verstappen was already at the centre of the 2027 driver market, even at a time more than half the grid\u2019s seats remain uncommitted<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speculation was rampant ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix two weeks ago that Verstappen\u2019s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, had held talks with McLaren CEO Zak Brown<\/a> about potential vacancies.<\/p>\n Neither party denied the talks, though Vermeulen said there were \u201cno negotiations\u201d, and Brown has said he isn\u2019t planning on changing his driver line-up.<\/p>\n Both defending champion Lando Norris and Australian Piastri are under contract until at least 2027 and 2028 respectively.<\/p>\n But that hasn\u2019t been enough to shut the rumours down.<\/p>\n For Vermeulen, conversations with rival teams \u2014 especially when those conversations become public \u2014 serve a second end.<\/p>\n Verstappen needs leverage.<\/p>\n For the last two seasons, Toto Wolff\u2019s public interest in signing Verstappen has been useful. In attempting to exert influence, he\u2019s been able to brandish a Mercedes switch as a threat.<\/p>\n But Russell now appears fixed at Mercedes following last year\u2019s contract renewal and his title position this year, as does championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton locked down, is also a no-go.<\/p>\n On paper that applies to McLaren too, but public confirmation of talks with Brown has been enough for the possibility, however remote, to remain alive.<\/p>\n In the fog of war that is the Formula 1 silly season, that might be enough.<\/p>\n The idea that McLaren might be interested isn\u2019t surprising. Verstappen is the best of his generation and at the peak of his powers \u2014 that\u2019s his power in the driver market.<\/p>\n Every team will have done its due diligence on his availability regardless of the improbability of snaring him. Brown would not be doing his job as CEO if he didn\u2019t entertain a conversation about Verstappen\u2019s availability.<\/p>\n It\u2019s likewise the job of every manager to know the lay of the land to ensure their driver is always best placed in the event of change.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for Piastri, Norris\u2019s status as world champion means Verstappen was always going to be connected to the Australian\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n (Photo by Peter Fox\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n The link has sparked some wild and improbable rumours, including that Piastri could pre-emptively quit the team or that he is subject to a performance clause that could see him ousted despite being one place and only 15 points behind Norris on the title table.<\/p>\n He had been leading Norris on points before Silverstone, where blameless first-lap contract with Liam Lawson \u2014 and then McLaren taking two laps to pit him for a new front wing \u2014 effectively ended his chance of scoring points.<\/p>\n Sources close to Piastri have described these ideas to Fox Sports as \u201cpurely speculative\u201d and pointed out both Piastri and McLaren have been publicly strongly supportive of their ongoing relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a contract in place,\u201d Piastri said in Silverstone<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve had multiple reassurances that the team are very happy with me, and I\u2019m very happy with the team, so for me, I\u2019m very happy where I am, happy with the situation I\u2019m in, and I\u2019m just trying to continue the success that we\u2019ve had in the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n In a podcast released last week, Brown denied interest in signing Verstappen.<\/p>\n