{"id":665116,"date":"2026-05-12T20:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665116\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:04:11","slug":"who-could-replace-max-verstappen-at-red-bull-plus-why-both-parties-might-look-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665116\/","title":{"rendered":"Who could replace Max Verstappen at Red Bull? Plus: Why both parties might look elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today, we\u2019re considering the curious case of Max Verstappen as we creep toward the season\u2019s halfway mark (which is the\u00a0Hungarian Grand Prix on July 26, assuming no canceled races get\u00a0added back into<\/a>\u00a0the schedule).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.<\/p>\n

Almost Crunch Time: Verstappen future debate intensifies<\/p>\n

As I left the Miami Grand Prix last week, I was wondering if McLaren\u2019s return to front-running form at Hard Rock Stadium meant it was truly back to its\u00a0dominating\u00a0form (spoiler, it\u00a0might\u00a0be\u00a0track-specific)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But perhaps I should\u2019ve been wondering about the resurgence of Red Bull and Max Verstappen.\u00a0After all, this dazzling combination looked really strong in Miami qualifying, before Verstappen threw that progress away with a poor start in the main race, which we went through\u00a0in detail on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And as much as I try to spend every waking second thinking about F1, there\u2019s only so much pondering on grand prix racing to fit into a day (or newsletter).\u00a0But now\u2019s the time to think about Verstappen and Red Bull.<\/p>\n

After all, with F1 on another racing interlude before the Canadian GP next week, you\u2019re going to be seeing the Dutchman\u2019s name in the headlines plenty this week. Because much like\u00a0our own Luke Smith<\/a>, he\u2019s on quite the racing side quest in May, as Verstappen will start the 2026\u00a0N\u00fcrburgring 24 Hours<\/a>\u00a0on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Verstappen is seeking to become the first F1 driver to win the endurance sports car race since Markus Winkelhock in 2018 (although the last full-season F1 racer to achieve this was Pedro Lamy in 2010, when the Portuguese driver tied for the most N\u00fcrburgring 24 wins, with five).
\nThe last F1 world champion to win the race was the great Niki Lauda, all the way back in 1973. Oh and for an even more niche link,\u00a0longtime F1 safety car driver<\/a>\u00a0Bernd Mayl\u00e4nder won this race in 2000.<\/p>\n

If Verstappen can join this club, it would be an impressive achievement.<\/p>\n

The race comes at an intriguing time, as Verstappen\u00a0said he was considering<\/a>\u00a0his F1 future after the Japanese GP back in March.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not quite crunch time for committing to Red Bull in 2027,\u00a0as\u00a0Verstappen\u2019s contract situation<\/a>\u00a0means he can only walk away from the team if he is outside the top two in the championship at a certain point in the season. This is most likely during the August summer break.<\/p>\n

But the news that broke last Friday about F1\u00a0decreasing the reliance<\/a>\u00a0on electrical engine energy (one of Verstappen\u2019s\u00a0biggest problems<\/a>\u00a0with the new cars) came at an important time.<\/p>\n

Verstappen called the engine\u00a0energy systems tweaks<\/a>\u00a0introduced for the Miami race a \u201ctickle<\/a>\u201d that \u201cwon\u2019t change the world\u201d in terms of how the 2026 cars feel behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

So now the question is: Do the hardware changes that will increase the importance of Internal Combustion power in F1 engines for 2027 and (hopefully) do away with off-putting elements such as\u00a0super-clipping<\/a>\u00a0go far enough to convince Verstappen to stick around in F1 over the next few years?<\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s media appearances at the\u00a0sold-out N\u00fcrburgring<\/a>\u00a0race are set to be very limited, so we may have to wait at least one more week before the Montreal event kicks off to get his initial thoughts.<\/p>\n

But I can\u2019t see how a (rare) fast intervention from F1 on rule changes doesn\u2019t at least go a good portion of the way to ensuring Verstappen remains in grand prix racing for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Whether he stays at Red Bull, well, is another matter \u2026<\/p>\n

Successor(s): Why Red Bull might look elsewhere<\/p>\n

Verstappen was boosted back toward his grid-topping best in Miami by a series of Red Bull car upgrades.\u00a0These included:<\/p>\n

New front and rear wings
\nA\u00a0major car weight reduction<\/a>
\nA new steering development that is helping Verstappen push the front of his car more in the way he needs to be at his best<\/p>\n

But given how strong Mercedes remains \u2014 and it has its own upgrades to come in Montreal \u2014 Verstappen\u2019s path to that critical second place in the drivers\u2019 standings by the summer break still appears very difficult, even with a better Red Bull car.<\/p>\n

Right now, he\u2019s 54 points back of George Russell\u2019s second place in the standings, and 74 behind leader Kimi Antonelli.\u00a0The Ferrari and McLaren drivers are all well-placed to race Verstappen, too.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be getting into this properly in the coming weeks, but now seems like a good time to consider who Red Bull could possibly turn to if Verstappen does decide to leave the team:<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri:\u00a0Showed his potential in the 2025 title fight he lost to Lando Norris and Verstappen. Already linked with being\u00a0Red Bull\u2019s preferred candidate<\/a>\u00a0to replace Verstappen one day.
\nCarlos Sainz:\u00a0Surely the best driver outside the top teams right now. And the management that might\u2019ve stood against his return to the Red Bull fold (which he left in 2017)\u00a0are gone<\/a>.
\nAlex Albon:\u00a0Blew a chance at Red Bull in 2019-2020, but he\u2019s a far better driver these days.
\nPierre Gasly:\u00a0Delete \u201c2020\u201d from Albon\u2019s entry above, and the same applies to the\u00a0highly-rated Alpine driver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday I also outlined just\u00a0how poor<\/a>\u00a0Isack Hadjar was in Miami \u2014 seemingly continuing Red Bull\u2019s run of promoted driving talent failing to produce for its top team.\u00a0But there\u2019s still time for Hadjar to turn this around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, if Verstappen were to walk, Hadjar would have an even greater chance of staying, as F1 teams are generally reluctant to make two driver changes at once since it risks having to get two newcomers up to speed over one offseason.<\/p>\n

But if Red Bull does lose its greatest-ever driver (only\u00a0the marathon\u2019s Sebastian Vettel<\/a>\u00a0can compete with Verstappen on title- and win-statistic terms) for 2027, it will most likely have to look outside its ever-shallower in-house driving talent pool for the first time since it hired Sergio P\u00e9rez to replace Albon for 2021.<\/p>\n

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman<\/p>\n

The 2026 French Formula 4 driver Autumn Fisher will be the wild-card entry for the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, F1 Academy announced today.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old will represent Standard Charter \u2014 a banking and financial services company that is partnered with the all-women racing series.<\/p>\n

In 2024, F1 Academy introduced wild-card entries, where select drivers appear for one-off events, usually as a representative of the country the championship is racing in on the weekend in question. In this case, Fisher is Canadian.<\/p>\n

As championship managing director Susie Wolff put it in the news release, \u201cthe wild card initiative exists to give emerging talent the platform to step up.\u201d And several drivers have advanced from being a wild-card entry to earning a full-time F1 Academy race seat.<\/p>\n

These include Ella Lloyd (who made her debut in Singapore 2024 and is now in her second season being supported by McLaren) and\u00a0Alisha Palmowski<\/a>\u00a0(who appeared for the Qatar 2024 round and is supported by Red Bull).<\/p>\n

Fisher participated in last year\u2019s F1 Academy rookie test, and finished 16th fastest out of 18 drivers in the afternoon session. She has also appeared in the British F4 championship in 2026.<\/p>\n

Back to you, Alex.<\/p>\n

Outside the Points<\/p>\n

\ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf1 I said it would be a Verstappen-heavy week, which really began with Luke\u2019s story on Ford revealing it spoke to the Dutchman about\u00a0one day racing for its Hypercar team<\/a>\u00a0at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ford will enter the top class of the World Endurance Championship in 2027.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea BMW won the WEC\u2019s 6 Hours of Spa, which featured a\u00a0characteristic rearguard masterclass<\/a>\u00a0from ex-F1 driver Kevin Magnussen to aid the path of his teammate Robin Frijns to victory.<\/p>\n

\u203c\ufe0f Luke also analyzed the\u00a0recent revelation<\/a>\u00a0that one of the canceled races in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia could be put back on the 2026 schedule.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\uddd0 And Antonelli has apparently had the best start to an F1 season\u00a0since 2016<\/a>, with his points total of 100 after four races matching Nico Rosberg at the same point a decade ago. Antonelli only has 100 points because of his sprint race points accrued so far in 2026, whereas Rosberg won four straight races, which\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to me \u2014 makes the comparison entirely worthless.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-665116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665116","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=665116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}