Outside Line: Ferrari need Verstappen to be F1 Champions again
F1 NewsSaturday, 14 June 2025 at 20:20
Amid much speculation about Max Verstappen’s future, it dawned on me as I did the maths. Wearing my Nostradamus hat and predicting what lies ahead, I see the Dutch ace eventually moving to Ferrari. They need him.
Of course, Verstappen would be welcome in any team. The real question is which team can provide him with a decent car with which he can win. Right now, Red Bull is doing that, although he’s the only one who can drive that car. He’s stolen two wins from the dominant McLaren this season with neither of his teammates anywhere in sight. But that’s an old story.
This story is about Verstappen’s future, which many believe could be with Aston Martin as he makes what seems to be the logical move to reconnect with Adrian Newey, the man who designed all the cars that won him his four world titles.
That’s a match made in heaven. But much will depend on Aston Martin, Newey, and how the AMR26 performs under the new regulations.
I do believe Lawrence Stroll’s mega project is ready to break through to the next level, where the Green cars could genuinely be a contender on any given weekend. That’s the dream for now. The rest is just wishful thinking.
Every Formula 1 race driver dreams of Ferrari
And speaking of dreams, every driver dreams of racing for Ferrari. Every great driver has done it. Those that didn’t, like Ayrton Senna, were destined to until fate intervened. In the modern era, Sebastian Vettel went there. So did Fernando Alonso before him. And now Lewis Hamilton.
Yet none of them managed to take Ferrari back to the glory days of Michael Schumacher, or before him, Niki Lauda. It has been a long time with many experiments, many close misses, but also many failures.
Ferrari has not won a F1 title since 2008, when Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen delivered the Constructors’ crown. The Iceman remains their last F1 Drivers’ World Champion in 2007. We’re now nearly two decades removed from the last time the Tifosi celebrated a F1 championship title.
What does the future hold for the Scuderia?
From the driver's perspective, all their 'money' has been on Charles Leclerc since his junior career. And in reverting to their historic tactics of hiring the best of the best, Ferrari president John Elkann did what few expected but what ultimately made sense. He lured Hamilton to Maranello.
It was a marriage made in heaven. The greatest driver of this era at the greatest team in F1 history. And a very fast young teammate. While the honeymoon was super sweet, the reality check has been brutal.
Ferrari simply has not delivered with the SF-25. Hamilton has struggled to adapt to the car, though he did flash some of his old brilliance with a Sprint Race victory in Shanghai. That, however, has been the peak of his 2025 campaign so far. An anomaly.
Hamilton's struggles are well documented
By Hamilton’s own admission, he’s having difficulty getting comfortable in the Ferrari. The car also perplexed Leclerc early in the season, but being a Ferrari-bred man, Charles has managed to adapt his driving to get the best out of the car.
Hamilton, after 20 years of Merc power and a decade of racing the Mercedes way, is finding the transition tough. So much so he has had to go more than once go public with support for not only his race engineer but also his Ferrari team boss. The Briton is committed long-term to the project, he insists.
No matter the goodwill, if there is no performance, there is a problem. Even this weekend in Canada has been dismal. Leclerc crashed heavily early during FP1 and had to sit out the rest of the day as the team scrambled for a new chassis. Hamilton, in the non-broken car ended the day P8, half a second shy of the top time set by Mercedes driver George Russell in FP2.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter. With the heavy hitters of Italian media asking questions about the team, how long will the Ferrari bosses allow this to go on for?
No matter how you look at it, McLaren are on course to claim both 2025 F1 titles. For sure, Ferrari are out of this World Championship battle. All eyes now shift to 2026, a crucial reset year with new regulations for both power units and chassis. These moments tend to shake up the order. Just look at what happened when the turbo hybrids came in just over a decade ago.
No logic in any top driver leaving their current F1 team at the end of 2025
So while some speculate Verstappen could leave Red Bull as early as the end of 2025, I don’t see the logic. With Red Bull and Ford aligned for 2026 and no one yet knowing how strong any of the new packages will be, why would Verstappen walk away?
What if Aston Martin turns out to be a disaster? Or Mercedes, for that matter? And what if Red Bull builds a rocket again? No one knows what’s going to emerge when the 2026 cars hit the track. Only then, in early testing, will we begin to see who’s nailed it, who’s floundering, and who holds the advantage in this new era.
That is when the pieces of the puzzle will start coming together. That is when Verstappen, I believe, will make his decision about the future of his career. Sit it out to the end of this year, check how the land lies in 2026. Then make the call for 2027, or even 2028, when his Red Bull contract runs out and the year he turns 30.
By that time, if things carry on as they are at Ferrari, Hamilton, with seven world titles and a record 105 Grand Prix wins, is unlikely to want to spend his twilight years racing in the midfield. Into his forties, Sir Lewis needs a winning car next year. If he doesn’t get one, he will leave Maranello at the end of next season or earlier, I predict.
How can Ferrari slot Verstappen into their future?
If the Leclerc-Hamilton pairing doesn’t work, Ferrari’s leadership will need a new plan for a new era. And that could mean going scorched earth on the current team leadership, to bring in the next chapter of this fascinating history.
That plan, in my view, involves Hamilton retiring and Leclerc moving on, possibly to Mercedes or Aston Martin, clearing the way for Verstappen to slot in at Maranello. If Vasseur remains under those conditions is another story altogether.
Just as it was logical for Hamilton to close out his career in the Red of the Scuderia, the same logic applies to Verstappen if Ferrari is truly back in the game. Before him, it was Vettel. Before that, it was Alonso. Before him, Raikkonen, Schumacher, etc. Ferrari, as always, is best served when it builds its team around one great driver.
Verstappen is that man. Whoever they put in the other seat won’t really matter with Max going to war for the Reds. But there are a bunch of handy juniors in their squad to tap into, as backup for the number one car. In that scenario, Oliver Bearman will need to make a case to slot into the garage next door to Max.
To cut a long story short, if Ferrari’s current project fails and Red Bull fumbles the 2026 package, I see Verstappen at Ferrari for 2027. That's the only way of F1 titles returning to #4 Via Abetone Inferiore. That’s my prophecy. Let’s see if it comes true!
Do you see Max Verstappen at Ferrari in the future?
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