Alan Permane insists that any decision by Max Verstappen to leave Red Bull would have no bearing on Racing Bulls.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Faenza-based squad’s team principal also pointed out that “there are too many unknowns” to speculate on what influence a potential move would have on the F1 driver market.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Verstappen’s future has been one of the dominant storylines of the season, amid persistent reports of the four-time F1 drivers’ champion edging closer and closer to the door at Milton Keynes.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Sitting seventh in the standings after 10 rounds, the Dutchman can activate a performance-related exit clause in his contract \u2014\u00a0which runs until the end of 2028 \u2014 \u00a0to leave for pastures new as early as the end of the campaign.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
McLaren has emerged as the most credible destination of late, with rumours suggesting any deal could involve a swap with Oscar Piastri.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
However, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen have both publicly denied such negotiations are taking place.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
With Racing Bulls the proving ground for emerging Red Bull talent, Permane was asked about the potential impact of Verstappen’s departure on the six-time constructors’ champion’s sister operation.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Well, on my team it’ll have no impact because he doesn’t drive for me, so I think that’s a question for Laurent [Mekies], really,” the Briton told media, including RacingNews365, who was keen to stress that the matter sits firmly with Red Bull boss.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Max doesn’t drive for me, and it’ll be up to Laurent to decide his drivers for next season,” the 59-year-old added.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tToo many moving parts<\/p>\n
The Racing Bulls boss did, however, indicate a willingness to support the promotion of one of his current drivers, Liam Lawson or Arvid Lindblad, should Mekies deem either ready for the step up to Red Bull.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“If he really believes Liam or Arvid is ready to take that challenge, then of course we’ll be right there and ready to support that,” Permane added.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Such a promotion would, in turn, free a seat at Racing Bulls, with Red Bull junior Nikola Tsolov, currently competing in Formula 2 with Campos Racing, the most obvious candidate to fill any vacancy, and has been declared “next in line” by Permane himself.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
While the prospect of internal reshuffling is straightforward enough in theory, Permane pointed to the complexity of the wider driver market as a reason to avoid speculation.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A Verstappen move to McLaren, as mentioned, could see Piastri head to Red Bull rather than either Lawson or Lindblad stepping up.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Equally, Verstappen may simply choose to stay, as he and senior Red Bull figures have repeatedly indicated.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Permane concluded: “But I don’t want to speculate on which one it could be, or if Max moves to another team, would he swap with a driver from another team? I think there are too many unknowns.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alan Permane insists that any decision by Max Verstappen to leave Red Bull would have no bearing on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-840754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840754","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=840754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}