![](\"https:\/\/www.grandprix.com\/display\/photo?photo_caption=Max+Verstappen%2C+Hungarian+GP+2026&photo_copyright=%C2%A9+Red+Bull&photo_url=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.grandprix.com%2Fjpeg%2Fraces%2Fphun26%2Ffri%2Fred%2Fverstappen7-lg.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMax Verstappen, Hungarian GP 2026
\u00a9 Red Bull<\/p>\n
Verstappen was again photographed holidaying with Toto Wolff and their respective partners in Sardinia, around the yachts both regularly use in the area.<\/p>\n
However, Mercedes has not pursued the Dutchman as aggressively this year, while recent links with McLaren would require Verstappen to leave his long-time Red Bull environment to join Zak Brown’s customer-engined team alongside fellow champion Lando Norris.<\/p>\n
Doornbos believes the realistic alternatives have now disappeared.<\/p>\n
In the coming month we will get some news, he said on the Pit Talk podcast.<\/p>\n
The future of Max Verstappen is most likely to be announced in Zandvoort. This is the last Grand Prix in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
It’s a big moment for Red Bull to keep Max on board and be able to attach him until 2028. That’s the contract he’s already signed.<\/p>\n
It is only fair to the team to say that publicly to the media and to Red Bull: I will stay with you, so that we can focus on 2027.<\/p>\n
That will be an important topic of conversation.<\/p>\n
He believes Verstappen has now missed the boat for an immediate move.<\/p>\n
He has to stay with Red Bull, said the Dutchman. The alternatives have been dropped.<\/p>\n
I don’t see it happening again that Mercedes is pushing for Max, as they’ve done in the past. Of course they already have the next superstar in their own team.<\/p>\n
Doornbos was referring to 19-year-old championship leader Kimi Antonelli, while he doubts Mercedes would want to place Verstappen alongside the Italian.<\/p>\n
Marketing-wise, that would be great, but sportingly, I think it would be a disaster to have those two guys in one team, he said.<\/p>\n
If George continues to perform weakly and that becomes a problem, they can hire another second driver. Then you don’t hunt the signature of a quadruple world champion anymore.<\/p>\n
Former Red Bull adviser Dr Helmut Marko also hopes Verstappen stays, although he remains unimpressed by the team’s current form.<\/p>\n
I’d give the team a satisfactory rating, he told Kronen Zeitung.<\/p>\n
They’re not always quick.<\/p>\n
Marko sees clear differences from Red Bull’s successful recovery during the 2025 season. They are not constantly fast, said the 83-year-old Austrian.<\/p>\n
In addition, the collaboration between Max and his engineers does not seem to be going well either.<\/p>\n
He doubts Verstappen can mount another championship comeback.<\/p>\n
The competition from McLaren and Ferrari is too big for that, said Marko. The car is too unstable.<\/p>\n
I certainly wouldn’t dare to make a bet on this.<\/p>\n
Finally, when asked where Verstappen will drive in the future, Marko admitted he does not know.<\/p>\n
I really sincerely hope he stays.<\/p>\n
(GMM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JULY 31, 2026 Max Verstappen could finally confirm at Zandvoort that he will remain with Red Bull through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836276,"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-836275","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\/836275","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=836275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}