F1 News: How long before Verstappen kisses the Red Bull sled goodbye? (2nd Update)

Following the departure of legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey, Red Bull and its star driver Max Verstappen began facing a range of problems.

Until Newey confirmed his exit on May 1, 2024, Verstappen had won four of the first five races. After that, the Dutchman managed just five wins for the remainder of the season—highlighting clear gaps in development.

Dutch journalist Jack Plooij doesn’t think Red Bull’s current Technical Director  has things under control.

“The big thing what’s happening now at Red Bull is that Adrian Newey has left. There is a French guy called, we call him Hache, but it’s Wache, Pierre Wache, and he is a typical Frenchman. So his head is exploding because he’s not going to solve the problem,” the Dutch expert said on the Red Flags podcast.

“Adrian Newey could solve the problem,” Plooij added.

Sky F1 presenter Simon Lazenby has revealed that many media personnel within the Formula 1 paddock believe that Max Verstappen’s exit from Red Bull has already been decided.

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“Everybody’s talking about it in the paddock,” Lazenby told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “There’s no two ways about it.

“You go up to people from Dutch media, some of them are saying ‘we think it’s done already’. Others are saying he’s in discussions. This is the nature of it. We might as well report what we see, report what we hear.”

“Names will remain anonymous, but there are some that are saying he’s going off to Aston Martin,” Lazenby continued.

“There are some that are saying why on earth Aston Martin, when we think the dynos and the info coming out of Brixworth is that Mercedes are looking really strong for 2026?”

Three-time world champion Niki Lauda’s son, Mathias—who works as an F1 analyst—commented that Max Verstappen has a plethora of options, thanks to his manager Raymond Vermeulen.

“Max’s manager knows what he’s doing. He will always make sure his driver is on the best team. If the team doesn’t function properly, he has the option to go somewhere else, if Max wants to, of course,” he told Servus TV as quoted by F1Maximaal.nl.

Lauda didn’t directly reveal any details of the Dutchman’s Red Bull contract that would allow him to leave the team. However, it is a well-known fact in the paddock that Verstappen has a performance-related exit clause in his deal, which runs until 2028.

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(GMM) As Red Bull’s performance situation worsens in unison with Max Verstappen’s mood, speculation is re-firing that the team could be set to lose its star driver.

While the corks were popping at McLaren, as Sunday in Bahrain established Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at 1-2 in the drivers’ standings, an emergency meeting was already taking place at Red Bull.

Multiple reports say Christian Horner, Dr Helmut Marko, Pierre Wache and Paul Monaghan were in frenzied talks about a dire night under the floodlights. A little later, Marko was seen in a heated exchange with Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen.

The quadruple world champion himself, though, had no intention to engage.

“Not at the moment,” Verstappen said when told by Viaplay that he has a lot to discuss with his team. “You go. I don’t feel like it.”

He insisted that struggling to finish any higher than P6 came as no surprise to him on a high-degradation circuit like Bahrain. “I already warned about it during the winter test here,” said the 27-year-old Dutchman.

“I told my team ‘Watch out, the gap is half a second’ and that has now proven true. So in that respect I was right.”

After a similarly-bad Saturday at Sakhir, team boss Horner did not even speak with the media as per usual.

“Our car is simply not balanced,” team advisor Marko said late on Sunday. “And we don’t know what the problem is. I suspect it’s mainly an aerodynamic problem.”

In the past-race emergency meeting, it is believed Red Bull decided to make immediate changes – including how the team approaches Fridays at grands prix.

“We need to question our approach,” Marko admitted. “For example, we must have a better practice program, and that we use the engine more to understand where we stand.

“We have very good people, but they have to look within themselves, and everyone has to be open and honest. We know that the car isn’t competitive. But why is that?”

For Verstappen, who in Bahrain wrote off his chances of winning a fifth consecutive title, Marko does not have good news. “In the short term, there’s nothing we can do technically.

“At least when we’re in Europe, there should hopefully be progress. But with a performance like this, we won’t be able to defend our world championship title. And that’s not good because we risk losing Max Verstappen.”

It is believed that if Verstappen drops out of the top three points standings, an exit clause will be triggered.

Marko is not hiding that he is worried.

“The concern is huge,” said the Austrian. “There must be improvements that will allow him to win. We are very concerned and there are things going on at the moment.”

It’s not clear what things are ‘going on’, but Sky Deutschland on Sunday asked Mercedes boss Toto Wolff if he is getting increasingly excited at the prospect of perhaps signing up Verstappen for 2026.

“We’re keeping both feet on the ground,” Wolff responded. “We’re happy with the way things are.”

The problem for Wolff is that George Russell – whose contract is up for renewal – is riding a crest of consistently good form at present. Ralf Schumacher, however, is convinced.

“I think the game is over,” said the former F1 driver. “The only hope is that there’s a Red Bull in Imola that suddenly competes for wins. But in Verstappen’s position, it’s logical that he wants to compete for wins.

“He has the opportunity to choose the best car in the paddock, and Red Bull is obviously not that.”

But with the Verstappen exit rumors set to heat up further, Red Bull may need to consider drastic moves – like shuffling prominent names out of their current positions.

“That’s not a question that arises right now,” Marko insists.