{"id":109020,"date":"2025-08-31T03:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/109020\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T03:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:13:08","slug":"jos-verstappen-names-the-three-big-teams-max-verstappen-discussed-racing-for-in-f1-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/109020\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos Verstappen names the ‘three big teams’ Max Verstappen discussed racing for in F1 next season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Max Verstappen\u2019s future at Red Bull was thrown into question following the sacking of Christian Horner in July. Jos Verstappen has recently shed light on the extent of his discussions with Max over his future.<\/p>\n

Mercedes emerged as the frontrunners to sign Verstappen<\/a> due to the decreasing performance of the 2025 Red Bull<\/a> car and the rumours of Mercedes<\/a> building a superior engine for F1\u2019s 2026 regulations. <\/p>\n

It was a period of uncertainty for Red Bull following the departure of long-serving team principal, Horner. The team had also lost a number of key personnel over the last 18 months, and the Austrian constructor looked to have been a sinking ship.<\/p>\n

In the end, Verstappen backed down from a Red Bull exit<\/a> due to the expiration of his exit clause, which would have allowed him to explore options if he was outside of the top three drivers in the standings after the Belgian GP.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Red Bull driver Max Verstappen\u2019s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend<\/a><\/p>\n

Jos and Max Verstappen had \u2018a lot\u2019 of discussions regarding a Red Bull exit to Ferrari or Mercedes<\/p>\n

In a rare sit-down interview with the Verstappens conducted by ViaPlay<\/a>, Jos<\/a> was asked about the extent to which he and Max<\/a> discussed the actual possibility of swapping his Red Bull overalls for Mercedes ones ahead of the 2026 F1 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot,\u201d the 53-year-old replied. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we\u2019ve talked about it a lot just this year. This year, however, a little more than in previous years. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was true, but there\u2019s also a lot of nonsense that goes along with the rumours. But we\u2019re also talking about Ferrari<\/a>, Mercedes and Red Bull. <\/p>\n

\"MaxPhoto by Mark Thompson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s logical. Max and I are discussing the possible options, and it\u2019s the three big teams, apart from McLaren, that can welcome him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jos himself may have been responsible for the Mercedes rumours<\/a>, with many members of the Red Bull set-up believing that Verstappen Sr was tipping the press off to increase leverage for his son in future negotiations.<\/p>\n

Another one of the key reasons for Verstappen\u2019s backdown in exit talks<\/a> was down to the fact that Red Bull has now agreed to let him leave freely in 2027. That way, the Dutchman can get a feel of the team\u2019s direction of development in the new era of regulations and decide then if he wants to stay.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0All you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links<\/a><\/p>\n

Max Verstappen plays down talks of \u2018secret\u2019 meetings with Toto Wolff in Sardinia<\/p>\n

One of the biggest catalysts for the rumours that linked Verstappen to Mercedes was the fact that he holidayed in close proximity to Toto Wolff in Sardinia during a three-week break from F1 in July. <\/p>\n

Ralf Schumacher thought the excursion was \u2018no coincidence\u2019<\/a> when considering the time of it, but in the interview with ViaPlay, the 27-year-old dismissed them completely.<\/p>\n

\"MaxPhoto by Mark Thompson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no secret,\u201d Verstappen clarified. \u201cI even went to lunch with Toto and his family, and I think that\u2019s perfectly allowed. We don\u2019t even talk about Formula 1, that\u2019s life. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had our boats next to each other because we slept in the same bay and during the day, we each went about our own business. But sometimes we get together and have good relationships. I think it\u2019s good that it\u2019s not just about competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

It certainly seems like Wolff\u2019s pursuit of the four-time world champion isn\u2019t anywhere close to ending, but as for the immediate future, Verstappen is locked in to continue racing for Red Bull until the end of the 2026 season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen\u2019s future at Red Bull was thrown into question following the sacking of Christian Horner in July.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,930,576,577,1884,1885,1881,2190,82],"class_list":["post-109020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-jos-verstappen","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}