Has Verstappen already signed with Mercedes for 2025?

Holland's triple F1 World Champion owes Red Bull everything he has achieved at the pinnacle of the sport. They made him great, Verstappen makes them greater. But is he Mercedes bound at the end of this season?

However, the abuse he flung at the team that has served him so well, and the unrestrained rudeness he aimed at his long-suffering race engineer Gianpiero Lambiasse, was a slap in the face for those among us who consider Verstappen one of the sport's greatest drivers.

Furthermore, Verstappen's lunge on his nemesis Lewis Hamilton during their battle for P3 at Hungaroring on Sunday was never on. The Red Bull failed to torpedo the Mercedes out of the race by sheer luck, but it was close to another Monza-mounting.

The #1 RBR did get airborne for a chunk thanks to the overtake that was never on. It was a flashback to teenager Max of the Toro Rosso days. He is 26 now!

Turrini best summed it up in his recent column: "Max Verstappen. From Super Max to Mini Max. The Dutchman's hysteria, including the incident with Hamilton. That can only be explained by the reality he no longer has a missile under his ass."

Verstappen won four of the first five races this season, a repeat of his monotonous 2023-style winning monotony was feared. But the Red Bull season has been blighted since the RB20 broke cover at the beginning of the year.

The Christian Horner sexting saga grabbed all the wrong headlines, igniting a civil war between the team principal and Max's father Jos Verstappen. The team spent weeks on the brink of implosion until sanity prevailed. But speculation abounded.

With Jos spotted with Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff during the height of the saga, the option to leave Red Bull and switch to the team his nemesis Hamilton is departing from. Which also happens to be the most coveted seat in F1, and the only one of the big four teams (McLaren now included) without a second driver.

While many believe Carlos Sainz is the cork of this 2025 F1 Silly Season, one could point to Wolff the best cards. He could fling in his aces, aka protégé Kimi Antonelli, recall Valtteri Bottas, or do a direct swap; Sainz for Hamilton. Or does he have a joker in his hand that trumps them all? Max Verstappen?

Turrini reckons: "At Red Bull, internal brawls - from the Horner case onwards, through to Adrian Newey's departure - have triggered a mechanism that makes one think of self-destruction.

"From the way he’s behaving, from the words he reserves for his engineers, live on the world stage! Yes, I’d be tempted to say Verstappen has already signed for Mercedes 2025!" ventured the Italian scribe.

Although contracted until the end of 2028 with Red Bull, Verstappen should have an escape clause to defect to Mercedes. After all, his mentor and biggest supporter, Helmut Marko told us as much!

Until Wolff is forced to play his real hand, we can only speculate if his best card is little Kimi, Valtteri, or Sainz or does he have the Max joker?