It would be fantastic for F1 if Max Verstappen left  Red Bull

When Max Verstappen clinched the driver title in 2021, no one could have ever thought that the driver would ever leave Red Bull. The relationship was as close as it could ever have been.

However, two years have passed by and during this time, Max Verstappen has achieved copious amounts of success. He's already a three-time world champion, and unless something drastic happens, he's winning his 4th title as well.

Having said that, while the relationship with Helmut Marko seems to be improving, it does appear that the same cannot be said about Max Verstappen's relationship with Christian Horner. The driver showed at Jeddah which side he was going to be if push came to shove, and that side was Marko's.

Whether Max Verstappen leaves Red Bull or not is only speculative at this stage. Having said that, if he did make the move, that would be fantastic for F1.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull are the perfect combination

Watching Max Verstappen and Red Bull combine is like looking at poetry in motion. Everything is perfect from start to finish of a weekend, and hence we see results similar to the 21 of 22 wins that were achieved in 2023.

In Max Verstappen, we have the best driver in F1 who has worked out the formula to be relentlessly fast and flawless. In Red Bull, we have a team led by Christian Horner with plenty of significant architects that help the team be what it is.

There's Adrian Newey, there's Pierre Wache, there's Hannah Schmitz, there's Jonathan Wheatley and others. It is an outfit that ticks every checkbox required for success.

The result is the 2 years of ruthless dominance by Red Bull, which would in all likelihood continue through the third year as well.

No other rival comes close

Another factor behind the kind of dominance Red Bull enjoys is that no one else comes close. No driver on the current grid is as good as Max Verstappen, no team principal has been as brilliant as Christian Horner, no designer has been as much a pioneer as Adrian Newey is and no team is as brilliant operationally as Red Bull.

Mercedes, on its part, is a team that doesn't imbibe confidence. Ferrari is still building things up and is not there yet. Aston Martin and McLaren are overall a step short of being consistent frontrunners.

All of these emphasize that, in the current iteration, these teams cannot match the Max Verstappen-Red Bull partnership.

Max Verstappen leaving makes the grid more balanced

This is where Max Verstappen's departure from Red Bull will shuffle things up. It opens up the possibility of the best driver on the grid moving to any of the other top teams. When Verstappen does move, it will lead to a scenario where the driver will take a few of the engineers from Red Bull as well, further weakening the Austrian team and boosting the squad that he joins.

What all of this does is level the playing field because otherwise, in F1, if the best driver ends up with the best team, we get the kind of dominance that we have right now with Redbull and Verstappen.

It could be the end of the dominant era

While there's no doubt that what Red Bull and Verstappen have done is brilliant and will go down as arguably the most dominant years in the sport, F1 is also entertainment.

And single-team dominance is the antithesis of entertainment. If you have one team dominating the sport, it just kills the entertainment factor in the sport. The viewership has suffered a major drop in the last couple of years, and it will suffer a bit more this season as well.

Having said that, if Verstappen moves out of Red Bull, not only would we have a level of novelty on the grid, but we would also have a scenario where the dominant era will come to an end. All in all, if the Dutch driver calls it a day with Red Bull, it might turn out to be a fantastic thing for F1.