Max Verstappen has addressed rumours of an exit clause in his Red Bull contract after Christian Horner admitted that there was a ‘performance element’ to the three-time world champions’ current contract.
Verstappen is contracted to the Milton Keynes-based team until 2028, but it has been widely reported that the Dutchman has the ability to get out of his deal in time for the 2026 season, provided Red Bull fail to give him the desired machinery capable of fighting for a World Championship.
After team principal Horner’s comments about Verstappen’s deal having a “performance element” emerged earlier this summer, the Drivers’ Championship leader spoke out in Singapore. “Maybe yes or maybe no,” he teased.
“Again, I don’t think about that at the moment, because there are so many things this year that I want to try to understand and do better than the years to come and what happens after that is still far away for me, so I don’t have it in my head at the moment.”
Both Mercedes and Aston Martin have been heavily linked with moves for the 26-year-old, with the latter adding Red Bull’s legendary aerodynamicist Adrian Newey to their stable on a multi-year deal, commencing in 2025.
Verstappen made it clear that he has no plans to race for both, insisting that any move away from Red Bull would be his “last step”. “For my part, I think I’ve already been with this team for a long time,” he explained.
“Then clearly people always want to win, everyone in the paddock wants to win, so you can very easily go from one side to the other over the years. But I don’t want my F1 career to be like that, I don’t want to be part of four or five teams. I want to build a long and stable and nice relationship with everybody in the team and feel at home.
“Changing teams often is not nice for me. It’s also something I don’t want to do at this stage of my career. My next step, if there ever is one, will be my last step. But the next step could also be the renewal with the team. Everything is pending at the moment.”
While Verstappen’s future will likely be dictated by Red Bull’s competitiveness in 2025, it could be shortened by the actions of the FIA. After he was punished with community service for swearing in a Singapore Grand Prix press conference, the Dutchman made it clear that he will walk away from the series if the governing body continue to restrict him.
“These kind of things definitely decide my future, if you can’t be yourself or you have to deal with these silly things,” he stated. “I’m now at the stage of my career that you don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring.”
