The whole “Max Verstappen will use his exit clause” drama has been going on for a while now, and for good reasons. The RB22 is riddled with flaws. You name it, and Red Bull Racing has got it. Chassis struggle? Check. Powertrain reliability issue? Check. When you bundle all of this up, it’s natural why Max Verstappen cannot handle this anymore. While the Dutchman was sealed in till 2028, it looks like Red Bull’s gotta focus on finding a replacement real soon.
You see, the F1 paddock rumors are finally getting real. Because Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner just dropped a massive update about the Dutchman’s future. Narrowing down to just 3 teams that have the biggest shot at poaching the world champ.
3-Team Chase for the Dutchman
“In my opinion, Max can only go to 3 teams: Ferrari, McLaren, or Mercedes,” Steiner had explained. But there is a small catch here. See, out of the 3 teams, only one has the actual chance of taking up Verstappen. And we’ll explain why.
Toto Wolff has been trying to get him to Mercedes for months. But that talk has really quieted down lately. And for obvious reasons. When you already have a 19-year-old phenom in your car’s driver’s seat, would you really wanna pay a massive buyout fee for the Dutchman? You could say that Kimi Antonelli sweeping back-to-back races and taking the Silver Arrows to the top has kind of influenced the whole Verstappen to Mercedes narrative.
Then there comes Ferrari. The Tifosi are already sitting with a seven-time world champion. Plus, we’d like to think that Ferrari’s primary objective should be fixing the “super clipping” issues going on with the SF-26. Instead of chasing a different driver.
Now, all of that leaves McLaren on the table. And there is one major reason making the Verstappen x McLaren storyline strong: Gianpiero Lambiase. Lambiase is heading to Woking to become their chief racing officer by 2028. And Max trusts his engineer completely. Following him to a team that actually has a fast, stable car makes perfect sense.
So for Red Bull, right now, the best course of action would be finding a replacement. And fast. Fans already know that Red Bull is panicking and looking at Oscar Piastri. But there are doubts that the deal will go through. Zak Brown has him locked down through 2028. You can’t just offer him a better salary; you have to buy the contract straight from McLaren.
Fixing your car and then also paying north of £50 million for Piastri? Do they even have the spare cash to pull this off? Damn, the driver market is getting crazy right now. And it seems the Dutchman holds all the cards right now.
