And lastly, there’s the Dutchman himself. Max Verstappen, after many rumors of leaving Red Bull in 2025, could find a new team at the end of 2026. This time, not because there are conflicts between him and management, but for the simple reason that the Austrian team seems destined to pay, in this engine era, for the choice to manufacture the engine in-house.
Verstappen would have carte blanche: who wouldn’t want to have the best driver on the grid in their team? The immense influence of the Dutchman, however, could also be a problem. Having Verstappen in your garage means setting up your operational team around him: car, mechanics, engineers all at his service. For this reason, his overwhelming presence could also be a reason to avoid betting on him.
On his side, is there a destination that Max Verstappen would like? For him, as for almost all drivers, there is a single team he cannot say no to: Ferrari. And what if, to replace Lewis Hamilton, it were Max Verstappen himself who arrived?
