The defending World Champion, Max Verstappen is behind Oscar Piastri by more than 60 points at the top of the table of Driver’s standings. Last few seasons were Max’s prime seasons. But this season, Max is facing the worst of the worst. From his car to his teammate, Max is just staying in Red Bull for his winning history. 

Max is often linked to Mercedes. Toto Wolff, Team principal and also CEO of the Mercedes team, is still hopeful that Max would join Mercedes at the end of the season. Speaking to the press Toto cleared that a decision would come soon regarding the final driver seatings of Mercedes. But Christian Horner stated that Mercedes has got its own problems.  

In the last Grand Prix, Kimi from Mercedes crashed into Max’s car leading to the exit of both of them. This made the exit of Max smooth. Further back, Verstappen’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was stuck scrapping to finish off the bottom of the order against Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, but picked up a 10-second penalty that secured his last-place finish. If one looks at the previous grand prix races, Max is on an average of P4. The result in Austria ended Red Bull’s 77-race points-scoring streak in F1 and means it has now been five races since Verstappen’s last grand prix victory. As such, questions are swirling about what this dry spell could mean for Verstappen’s future at the squad.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is of the opinion that says the team isn’t concerned that performance-related exit clauses could pave the way for an early departure for the Dutchman. 

Marko mentioned that Max has a contract till 2028, Like all top drivers, there are performance-based exit clauses – but as things currently stand, there is absolutely no reason that this contract won’t be fulfilled. But on the other hand, Christian Horner of Red Bull said that Max is absolutely annoyed by the “noises” of joining mercedes. 

Following up with the rumours other than Mercedes, Max is also said to follow the lead of former chief designer of Red Bull, who now is in Aston Martin. But Christian Horner and Jos Verstappen keep denying any news of Max’s departure from Red Bull. 

It would be quite interesting to watch the next grand prix races as they would have an impact on Max’s departure. 

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