Horner: Verstappen reaffirmed his commitment yesterday [17 April]
F1 NewsFriday, 18 April 2025 at 19:42
Max Verstappen will be racing for Red Bull next season, and there is no crisis, team principal Christian Horner insists, as speculation this week swirled about the Formula 1 world champion's future with the energy drinks outfit.
Rumours have swept the sport after Red Bull's motorsport consultant Helmut Marko expressed concern last weekend that Verstappen could trigger exit clauses and leave - with Mercedes and Aston Martin the main candidates.
Horner told Sky F1 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah on Friday: "There´s been a lot of noise outside of the team. Max reaffirmed his commitment yesterday. We are focused on making the car go faster, that´s where our focus is. Max is a part of that, he's a committed member of the team. The rest is all speculation."
Asked if the four-time F1 champion, who said on Thursday he was not thinking about his future, would be racing for Red Bull next season, Horner replied: "Yes, absolutely. People will always have their concerns. As a team we are focused on sorting the car out. Sort the car out and it doesn´t even become a discussion point."
Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper suggested earlier, without any sourcing, that Aston Martin were ready to offer Verstappen a somewhat modest $88 million a year for three years with Saudi funding. Modest because speculation earlier in the year was that Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll was prepping a 'billion-dollar deal' for the Dutch ace's services.
Aston Martin bandied about as most probable destination for Max
Aston Martin, controlled by Stroll senior, have Saudi energy giant Aramco as title sponsor and have taken top designer Adrian Newey from Red Bull with Honda also switching next year.
Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell told reporters the team were focused on 2026 with the current pairing of Fernando Alonso and Stroll's son, Lance.
Verstappen, who has a contract to 2028 subject to exit clauses, has also been linked to former champions Mercedes who have George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli this year and are widely expected to have the best engine in 2026.
McLaren team boss Zak Brown said in March he expected Verstappen to join Mercedes but former Mercedes strategy head James Vowles, now leading Williams, doubted that: "Japan was for me jaw-dropping, well done to him, but he comes with a lot of downsides as well that you have to acknowledge."
"And I think what Mercedes does have is a great culture with two drivers that are delivering near to the peak of the car and with one that's on the way up. So I personally don't think there's a place for him," Vowles told reporters.
Horner: It was not a crisis summit
Vowles said Antonelli, 18, was set to be very competitive while Russell, out of contract at the end of the year, could not be faulted.
Horner also addressed reports of a Red Bull "crisis meeting" in Bahrain last weekend, where Verstappen finished only sixth: "It was not a crisis summit. If you sit down with your engineers and discuss the race, I wouldn't describe that as a crisis summit.
"We are not where we want to be. We have got some issues with the car that we are working through and the whole team is working hard. We know what the issues are, it's introducing a series of upgrades over the coming races to address some of those shortcomings," declared Horner.
Former F1 driver turned pundit predicts that Verstappen will not be at Red Bull Next year, and figures that if he goes to Aston Martin it will be for the money, to Mercedes for wins and titles.
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