F1 pundit skeptical about Max Verstappen's future at Red Bull: "Something's up"

F1 pundit Martin Brundle has expressed his skepticism about Max Verstappen's future at Red Bull. The Dutch driver's future has become the talk of the town once again this weekend with his father Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner getting involved in another verbal battle.

Max Verstappen has been part of the Red Bull family since he began his F1 career in 2015. He debuted with Torro Rosso and was promoted to the senior team in 2016 where he won in his very first race. Since then, the driver and the team have grown through leaps and bounds.

In 2021, Max Verstappen won his first world title with the team and has since then signed a multi-year deal that takes him to 2028. That long deal made sense when it was signed, but the start of the 2024 F1 season has seen a lot of friction emerge within the squad. The friction is not necessarily between the driver and the team but between Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner.

Jos has been pretty vocal in criticizing Horner from the start of the season. It came to a head once again during the Austrian GP race weekend, where Jos was supposed to take part in the legend's parade. Surprisingly, Jos withdrew his participation at the last minute and blamed Horner as the one responsible for this.

The back and forth has since then continued, with both Horner and Jos making comments in the media. Looking at the latest developments, which also involved Jos publicly going into the Mercedes motorhome, there have been suggestions that Max Verstappen could move to Mercedes. Discussing the situation and the recent developments, Martin Brundle felt something was up. Talking about this on the Sky F1 broadcast, he said (via PlanetF1),

“It does appear that Mercedes-Benz are hanging around waiting to see what happens with Max Verstappen at Red Bull. Whether that’s for ’25 or 2026, time will tell. And there is apparently a side letter that is an exit clause with Dr Helmut Marko – allegedly, according to the paddock – should Max want to leave. Christian absolutely says that’s not going to happen and you have to say Max has been pretty consistent on [saying]: ‘I’ve got a long-term contract here, this is where I want to race.’"

He added,

"And Christian made the point that Max that has achieved every single one of his wins with Red Bull. Every podium, every World Championship, all three of them with Red Bull. They’re currently leading this one quite comfortably. Just have a think about that for a minute as to why you’d want to run away from that. But something’s up, but it seems as if they’re saying he’s going nowhere for next year especially.”

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Max Verstappen had reiterated his trust in the team early in the weekend

All of this comes after Max Verstappen had reinforced his trust in the team and assured that he would stay at Red Bull for the foreseeable future. In the pre-race driver press conference, Max was questioned about his future especially since Red Bull is being caught by the opposition, to which the driver reiterated his trust in the team and the fact that he's happy being a part of the squad. He said,

“I don’t think that’s how Formula 1 works, where suddenly you can say, ‘well, bye, guys’. It’s not how it works. I have a long contract with the team. I’m very happy where I’m at. And like I said before, we are focusing already on next year with things that we can implement on the car. So I guess that should say enough of where I’m driving next year.”

Max Verstappen's future has become a topic of discussion far too many times when Jos Verstappen is in the paddock. It remains to be seen what happens next, but the persistent friction at every race is not a good thing.