{"id":501111,"date":"2026-06-29T13:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/501111\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:18:17","slug":"f1-news-max-verstappen-future-heats-up-after-mclaren-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/501111\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Max Verstappen future heats up after McLaren talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Verstappen
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMax Verstappen has been linked with a possible move to McLaren. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

The four-time world champion remains contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028, but speculation over his future continues to intensify amid the team\u2019s difficult start to 2026.<\/p>\n

Despite delivering a season-best second in Austria<\/a>, Verstappen sits well down the drivers\u2019 championship in seventh and 98 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has only scored two podiums so far this season.<\/p>\n

Speaking with De Telegraaf, his manager Raymond Vermeulen stressed the priority remained to continue with Red Bull but made clear that loyalty will only go so far if the team cannot give Verstappen a competitive car.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to finish this adventure together with Red Bull,\u201d Vermeulen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spirit of Red Bull and the spirit of Verstappen, they match. We just need a package that allows us to fight at the front. That has always been the foundation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe feel at home at Red Bull, but we want to be competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, Max wasn\u2019t born to race in the midfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments come as reports emerged during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend that Verstappen\u2019s management had held preliminary talks with McLaren CEO Zak Brown.<\/p>\n

McLaren has no obvious vacancy, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri tied down to long-term deals.<\/p>\n

Brown, however, did not completely dismiss the idea of the Dutchman joining the team when asked about him on the grid by Sky Sports F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be very surprised if Lando or Oscar went elsewhere, because they are very happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course they have contracts but besides that, we\u2019re very happy with them and they are very happy here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf for some strange reason someone slipped on a banana peel getting out of the tub, then yeah of course, Max is a four-time world champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen also played down the latest speculation when asked about the reports, suggesting he had little interest in the noise around his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t do anything for me and I don\u2019t pay any attention to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese days it\u2019s all very easy. With AI, you can Photoshop anything you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

A long-rumoured Mercedes move for Verstappen<\/a> also continues to linger, although that route appears increasingly difficult after George Russell declared in Austria that he was certain he would remain with the team in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo announcement this weekend but I\u2019ll be racing here [at Mercedes] next year, 100 percent,\u201d Russell said when asked about his future with the team beyond this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t even been discussed [with team principal Toto Wolff]. We don\u2019t need to discuss it. It\u2019s not even a question mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to go into any more detail, but I will be here next year and that\u2019s the fact of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolff later backed Mercedes\u2019 current pairing of Russell and championship leader Kimi Antonelli, telling Sky Sports F1 he had no desire to change the line-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we don\u2019t want to change things, and we\u2019ve said that also to George,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a line-up that is good for us. I\u2019m very happy with the two of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies also insisted Verstappen wants to stay with the team, while acknowledging it must give him a car capable of returning to the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax has made clear to us that he wants to continue with the team. It\u2019s equally clear that he needs a fast car for him to be happy with the team,\u201d Mekies said.<\/p>\n

The latest round of speculation came on Verstappen\u2019s strongest weekend of the season in Austria, where Red Bull\u2019s major upgrade package helped him emerge as a genuine threat.<\/p>\n

Verstappen looked on course to fight for pole or a front-row start before crashing out of qualifying, but recovered on Sunday to finish second behind Russell for his best result of 2026.<\/p>\n

Asked what Red Bull needed to show to convince him about its longer-term direction, Verstappen kept his answer brief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know, but I don\u2019t need to talk too much about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Austria performance gave Red Bull encouragement, but Verstappen said the team still needed more before it could be sure its latest step was enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the upgrades worked well. There are a few things we still need to look at to see whether they can be improved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I think it was a bit better, although this is obviously a very short lap. That naturally means that the gaps are a bit smaller.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still behind, though, so we have to wait for the coming races to see what it looks like there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell masters Austrian GP for second win of season<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has been linked with a possible move to McLaren. Image: XPB Images The four-time world champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3516,4262,62540,111,139,69,12362,213],"class_list":["post-501111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren","tag-mercedes","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}