Max Verstappen open to switching teams amid changing Red Bull landscape as per former F1 driver

Former F1 driver Gerhard Berger claimed that Max Verstappen is open to switching teams and contemplative of his role at Red Bull after the departure of Adrian Newey and the further possibility of Helmut Marko's exit. The three-time world champion joined hands with the Austrian constructor in mid-2016 and both the driver and the team have seen unprecedented success since then, especially after F1 introduced new regulations in 2022.

Currently, the two are on their way to winning a third successive Constructor's title for Red Bull and fourth successive driver's title for Verstappen.

However, Max Verstappen's future with the Milton Keynes-based outfit has lately been called into question on several occasions given the team's ongoing internal power struggle. Discussing the champion driver's future in F1 with Bild, Berger said,

“Max is certainly reflecting on how things will continue without his mentor Helmut Marko and technical guru Adrian Newey. Red Bull is definitely the best fit at the moment, but when Max realizes that his car is starting to weaken and sees an advantage elsewhere, he will seize this opportunity."

The former Ferrari driver further pointed out that despite the rumors, he could not see Max Verstappen joining Mercedes considering the latter's current position on the grid.

“At the moment I don't see him there. Toto Wolff is trying hard to catch him, but even Max knows that his driving talent would not be enough to put Mercedes back on the road to victory. The car is not fast enough, because it has two excellent drivers in Russell and Hamilton," Berger added.

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F1 pundit David Croft shares his opinion on Max Verstappen joining Mercedes

F1 commentator David Croft believes that reports of Max Verstappen possibly joining Mercedes are not "dead in the waters" yet. Appearing on the podcast Sky F1, Croft addressed rumors that resurfaced during the 2024 Monaco GP pointing to such a scenario. He said,

“You get the impression, and I had a couple of wonderful text messages over the Monaco weekend from people who’d heard Jos (Verstappen, Max's father) talking and saying, ‘Max going to Mercedes, you know, that’s not dead in the water yet.'

Now, I am not sure what’s changed since the opening race of the season and Monaco so that it all went a bit quiet in between, and then someone might have come to the race in Monaco that we hadn’t seen at the track for a while that might be quite close to Max Verstappen."

The Dutch driver's current deal with the Red Bull F1 team sees him racing for them until the end of the 2028 season. However, some reports have indicated a clause in the agreement that might allow him to leave before it expires. Max Verstappen himself has refuted the rumors till now and stated that he is not leaving the Austrian team and is happy with them.