Goodbye from Verstappen to Red Bull. Exit almost confirmed and this will be his next team | OneFootball

Max Verstappen‘s future lies ahead of a crucial season that could end with his departure from Red Bull. The Dutch driver could be contemplating a new challenge in his career with options to go to Mercedes or Aston Martin.

Verstappen and his future: Mercedes or Aston Martin?

Rumors surrounding the possible departure of Verstappen have been growing in recent months. The relationship between the driver and Red Bull has been good, but the uncertainty surrounding the team, the changes of engine suppliers and the departures of key figures such as Adrian Newey have fueled rumors of a change.

Christijan Albers, the former Formula One driver, has cast doubt on the possibility of Verstappen leaving the Red Bull team. “Max is not going to get that power elsewhere,” he said in a Telegraaf podcast. The Red Bull team has shaped Verstappen’s character in a way that he might not have had with any other team.

However, the proposals are quite attractive. On the one hand, Mercedes, after the departure of Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari, is looking for a new boss and Verstappen is the man of choice. At the other end of the spectrum, Aston Martin is betting big to reach the top of Formula 1, including Adrian Newey, so it may be a destination of interest for the Dutchman.

In a recent interview on the Viaplay platform, he acknowledged that he had had talks with the Mercedes team, but that his current relationship with the Red Bull team was still in place. “I’m not lying about the fact that we’ve sat down together,” he said, leaving the door open to new opportunities.

Verstappen faces 2025 with pessimism

While speculation about his future continues, Verstappen sees a very difficult future for the 2025 season; after the pre-season tests in Bahrain he was sceptical about the pace of the RB21: “I don’t expect us to be the fastest in Australia,” he said, revealing the doubts he has about the car’s competitiveness for the new season.

Red Bull has chosen to fix the problems of the RB20, instead of showing a radical design evolution; the car did not give good sensations in the first tests, and everything indicates that it will not be at the level of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, which seemed to be a step above the Austrian team.

Pierre Waché, technical director of Red Bull, also expressed his doubts ahead of the first Australian Grand Prix, “it has not been as smooth a test as we had hoped”. The group is still in the process of fine-tuning and will try to find the best combination for their car.

An imminent farewell for Verstappen?

Red Bull’s performance in 2025 will be a very important factor for Verstappen’s future; if the team is not in the fight for the title, either for drivers or constructors, the Dutch driver could reconsider his future. Mercedes and Aston Martin, in turn, are closely watching the situation, ready to make an offer if the driver decides to leave.

For the moment Max Verstappen remains loyal to Red Bull, but in Formula 1 everything can change in a short space of time, and if Red Bull does not give the driver what he wants, victories, it would not be strange if he looked for new challenges away from the Austrian team that has allowed him to reach the top of Formula 1.