Montoya Doesn't Believe Verstappen Will Stay Loyal To Red Bull If Team Struggles in 2026
F1
Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes it's still pretty likely that Max Verstappen might leave Red Bull to join Mercedes after 2026.
Max Verstappen, who has been with Red Bull since the start of his F1 career (the first 23 races for Toro Rosso, now known as RB), has a contract with the Austrian F1 team until 2028.
Although he has been with the team his whole career, stayed loyal, and achieved incredible success together, there has been much speculation in 2024 about his potential exit.
Numerous factors contributed, such as an internal power struggle within Red Bull, decreasing performance (relative to other teams), and strong interest from other F1 teams, such as Mercedes.
The team principal of the German team, Toto Wolff, famously said there is no team on the F1 grid that wouldn't do handstands for the 27-year-old Dutchman.
Although Verstappen clarified that he is definitely staying with Red Bull Racing in the near future, former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya suggested he still wouldn't be surprised to see him switching teams in or after 2026. He told Instant Casino:
"I think Max Verstappen will end up leaving in a couple of years. He won't leave the sport. It's the ultimate. He'll leave Red Bull. He doesn't have it that difficult."
"Yes, it's hard because he works really hard. He has a stable job. And he kind of controls a lot of what happens. The big question is, is Max willing to play cool if 2026 is bad?"
"You know, if Red Bull comes with the powertrains and it's not where it needs to be, is Max going to be happy running tenth? No. And Mercedes comes with an offer, he is going to jump ship straight away."
In 2026, Red Bull decided to undertake a huge challenge: building its own power unit. This is something it hasn't done previously, as it has always supplied its power units from other manufacturers.
If Red Bull failed at creating a competitive power unit, the team could end up like Alpine, which has notoriously had a weaker power unit over the last couple of seasons and consequently struggled to stay competitive. Montoya added:
"It's very easy to be loyal when you win in races. If I was in his shoes for sure I would be looking at that already."
"It would surprise me if he's not. Publicly he would say,' No way,' but internally I would be surprised if a conversation was not going on."
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