Adrian Newey at Aston Martin enough to lure Max Verstappen there?

However, the Dutchman announced his commitment to his team, claiming he will see his current contract through despite losing out on a fifth Title, but was coy about his plans for the future.

And while the talks of Verstappen joining Mercedes calmed down, conjecture about a possible move to Aston Martin remained and got boosted by Adrian Newey joining them as a Managing Technical Partner and recently being appointed as Team Principal.

Despite recent instability at Red Bull with Christian Horner fired, Helmut Marko retiring (read fired) and talent moving to competitors, logic says that Verstappen will take his time and analyze the F1 landscape in 2026 following the introduction of the new rules.

That is not a given, according to former Ferrari engineer Jock Clear, who explained: "Aston Martin don't lack ambition, but I don't think it's as obvious to get Max Verstappen to join them because Adrian Newey is designing the car.

"There's been plenty of times when engineers have left and gone somewhere else and the drivers have gone elsewhere. Nowadays, it's a testament to the amount of infrastructure and the support structure of teams nowadays that it isn't one person that makes a team win.

"Time will tell," he went on. "Maybe it is about one person, and maybe Adrian going to Aston Martin was the one person that made the difference. Maybe it'll have to be two if Max is what they need.

"Max joining Aston Martin could be fascinating, but it's not going to happen yet; a year down the line, things could look very different," Clear predicted.

If Newey builds a fast car at Aston Martin, that would be a great incentive for Verstappen to jump ship.

"That's a good question," Clear said. "I haven't really got drawn into who I think's gonna hit the ground running, as they say.

"I read a lot of the opinions out there, and I think there's a general swell of support or belief that Mercedes will do a good job, but I don't know whether that's just based on the fact that the last time there was a big engine regulation change, they did a very, very good job.

"A lot of things have changed there since then. A lot of people have moved around. The other teams learnt a lot from what Mercedes did back in 2014.

"I think the Adrian Newey factor at Aston Martin is fascinating as much as anything, from the point of view that it's just fascinating.

"Would I be really excited if Aston rolled out as a rocket ship?" Clear mused. "The romantic in me would say that would be great; Newey does it again. But then on the other hand, I sort of think, no, surely not, you can't tell me that Adrian's going to do it again with Aston Martin; that's just crazy.

"So, I'm not sure which way I would like that to go," the Briton concluded. (Source: CasinoHawks)