Max Verstappen confirms plans to stay with Red Bull Racing in 2026

Max Verstappen has confirmed he intends to stay with Red Bull Racing for the 2026 F1 season.

The Dutch driver is contracted to race with the Milton Keynes-based team until 2028, but heavy speculation over his future has been present on multiple occasions in the last 18 months, with the driver linked with a move to another team.

One repeated link had been to Mercedes, whose drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli are out of contract at the end of 2025 and who had been linked with trying to sign Verstappen for 2025 when previous driver Lewis Hamilton left the Brackley-based team to join Ferrari.

Rumours in more recent weeks had suggested that Verstappen had opted to remain with Red Bull, who he joined in 2016 after just over a year with their junior team Toro Rosso.

In a press conference ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen told the media in remarks as quoted by the BBC that he would be staying with Red Bull for 2026.

He said, “I’ve never really said anything about it because I was just focused on talking to the team about how we can improve our performance, future ideas for next year as well. And that’s why I have nothing really to add ever.

“But yeah, I think it’s time to basically stop all the rumours. And for me, it’s always been quite clear that I was staying anyway.

“I think that was also the general feeling in the team anyway, because we were always in discussions about what we could do with the car.

“And I think when you’re not interested in staying, then you also stop talking about these kind of things. And I never did.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had said representatives of his team had held conversations with Verstappen about the idea of moving to Mercedes, although the Austrian said that it was not necessarily indicative of a move for 2026 and that it was more likely they would stay with their existing line-up.

Multiple reports had said there was a clause in Verstappen’s Red Bull contract that he would be free to leave the team if he was outside the top 3 in the driver’s championship in F1’s summer break.

If that was the case, this clause can no longer be used, with the Dutchman third in the championship and unable to be overtaken by 4th place Russell even if the British driver won this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix and Verstappen failed to score points.

The move will see Verstappen remain as part of a changed Red Bull Racing operation, with long-term team boss Christian Horner leaving Red Bull earlier this month. He has been replaced by Laurent Mekies, who was promoted from his role of boss at Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls. Mekies had his first race as team principal at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Red Bull are still set to have some driver market considerations to make for 2026, with Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda on a contract that expires at the end of 2025. The Japanese driver has struggled since being promoted to Red Bull in March, scoring just 7 points for the senior team after spending four full seasons with Red Bull’s junior team.