Christian Horner: Max Verstappen more likely to stay at Red Bull now?

There are other, even more important, questions with which Verstappen has to be at peace, though, and they revolve around performance.

Red Bull have fallen a long way from the dominant form they showed through 2022, 2023 and the first few races of 2024.

McLaren are now the leading force in F1. On average, Red Bull still have the second fastest car in qualifying this year, but Verstappen has been unhappy with it for some time.

He has been complaining about poor balance. In qualifying, he is still able to make it more or less competitive on certain types of track. He has four pole positions this year, all at high-speed circuits, including at Silverstone last weekend. That’s as many as McLaren’s championship leader Oscar Piastri.

But in races the Red Bull is rarely able to compete with the McLaren.

The competitive tables in F1 turned at the Miami Grand Prix last season, some 14 months ago. That was Newey’s last race on the Red Bull pit wall, and it was the weekend McLaren produced a major upgrade to their car that changed the landscape.

Lando Norris scored his maiden victory in Miami that weekend. Verstappen kept winning for a while but, by the middle of last season, the McLaren was the car to beat. They made a lot of progress over last winter, and have been even further ahead this season.

Red Bull nailed the current regulations when they were introduced in 2022, and started a period of domination, but now they have been left behind.

That leads to obvious questions about the Red Bull technical department now that Newey has gone.

On one level, it could be argued that the new rules being introduced next year give Red Bull a chance to reset.

On another, if a team are lagging behind competitively under the current rules, there is at least a reasonable possibility they will continue to do so under the next ones.

Then there is the question of the new engines being introduced for 2026. These increase the proportion of total power provided by the electrical part of the engine to about 50%.

Red Bull are producing their own engine, in their new in-house engine facility, with help from Ford. The word on the street in F1 is that Mercedes are further ahead with this new power-unit than Red Bull. No-one can know for sure until next year starts, but the Verstappens have their ear to the ground and are concerned.

Max Verstappen does not have to choose to leave, of course. Rather than gamble, he might wait and see how the competitive landscape looks next year. But if he is already convinced Red Bull will not be capable of winning races, he might not consider leaving much of a risk.