A former F1 boss shares their thoughts on Max Verstappen’s future, saying Mercedes ‘don’t really need’ the four-time champion.
Max Verstappen has been talked about a lot lately, with rumors that he might leave Red Bull. Both Mercedes and McLaren are said to be interested in signing the four-time F1 world champion. It’s not too surprising since Max is probably one of the best drivers in Formula 1 right now.
This season, Verstappen seems a bit frustrated with how Red Bull’s car is performing, which has made people wonder where he’ll be racing in the future. Both Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and McLaren’s Zak Brown really admire Verstappen and have praised his talent before. But, they have also tried to calm down the rumors linking him to their teams.
Recently, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner shared his thoughts on where Verstappen might end up after seeing how three top teams are doing this year. Mercedes has been the strongest team this season, looking like they want to return to the dominant run they had between 2014 and 2020. Their driver, Kimi Antonelli, is leading the championship by a big margin, which makes Steiner think Mercedes don’t actually need Verstappen right now.
On the Up To Speed podcast, Steiner said, “If Max moves, he’ll want to go somewhere better than Red Bull. But there aren’t many teams better than Red Bull. Maybe Red Bull isn’t at its best right now, but they’re still one of the top four teams. Ferrari’s seats are taken, and Mercedes seems to have found their own version of Max Verstappen, so maybe they don’t need the real Max at the moment.”
Steiner also gave his opinion about McLaren, saying it might not be a smart move for Verstappen to join them. He thinks it would be more of a sideways move instead of an upgrade. “McLaren was improving until recently, but are they really better than Red Bull? Red Bull has their own engine now, which is a big advantage,” he explained. “McLaren has a Mercedes customer engine, which is good, but if Max ever wanted to move, McLaren would be his only option—and I’m not even sure that’s possible.”
There was also talk that young driver Oscar might go to Red Bull, but Steiner believes the main thing for Max is that wherever he goes, it has to be the best team out there.