{"id":764149,"date":"2026-06-27T06:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/764149\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T06:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:36:10","slug":"driver-market-max-verstappen-to-mclaren-and-esteban-ocons-haas-future-has-f1s-silly-season-ramped-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/764149\/","title":{"rendered":"DRIVER MARKET: Max Verstappen to McLaren and Esteban Ocon\u2019s Haas future \u2013 has F1&#8217;s \u2018silly season\u2019 ramped up?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Formula 1&#8217;s &#8216;silly season&#8217; has flicked up a gear at the Red Bull Ring, with Max Verstappen, McLaren, Racing Bulls and Esteban Ocon all in the thick of it \u2013 but what is really going down?<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\"><a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoidmVyc3RhcHBlbl9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vZHJpdmVycy9tYXgtdmVyc3RhcHBlbiIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/drivers\/max-verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Verstappen<\/a>&#8216;s future has been a staple of driver market chatter in recent times despite the fact the four-time World Champion has a contract with <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoicmVkX2J1bGxfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL3RlYW1zL3JlZC1idWxsLXJhY2luZyIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/teams\/red-bull-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Bull<\/a> until at least the end of 2028.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">The Dutchman was linked with a move to <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoibWVyY2VkZXNfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL3RlYW1zL21lcmNlZGVzIiwicGF0aFR5cGUiOiJpbnRlcm5hbCJ9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/teams\/mercedes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mercedes<\/a> for this year, but he ultimately committed to competing for the energy drinks&#8217; factory team in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1&#8217;s &#8216;silly season&#8217; has flicked up a gear at the Red Bull Ring, with Max Verstappen, McLaren,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-764149","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\/764149","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=764149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}