Rumours Fly: What Marko Predicts for Verstappen's Next Move
Mar.31 - Dr Helmut Marko thinks speculation about Max Verstappen's future will only intensify as the 2025 season develops.
Amid the sensational Liam Lawson-Yuki Tsunoda seat swap headlines, Verstappen travelled to Milton-Keynes last week for a key engineering meeting to discuss the 2025 Red Bull's difficult handling and lack of pace.
"We were able to show Max the general development direction of the car and what concrete improvements are being made," team advisor Marko told Speed Week.
He also told formel1.de: "The car needs to be upgraded so that Max can win a fifth world title. That's our main goal and the whole team is working hard to achieve it."
It's not just the world championship that's at stake for Red Bull, but there are clear signs that the Dutchman is increasingly unhappy with the team and eyeing a potential move for 2026 to Mercedes or Aston Martin.
"All the top drivers have clauses in their contracts that allow them (the contracts) to be terminated in the event of poor results," Marko admitted.
"But all such clauses are formulated differently, and at the moment this topic is not being discussed at all."
However, he admits that if Red Bull cannot quickly improve, the next round of clause timing will make the lead-in to the summer break very interesting.
"Yes, that's the time frame," said Marko, 81. "But think about it - we're currently second in the standings, just 8 points behind the leader. And the summer break is still a long way off."
But if Verstappen does ultimately jump ship, that could also mark the end of Marko's own tenure at Red Bull.
"Yes, that could be a good reason (to leave)," admitted the Austrian.
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I still think that if Max were to leave prematurely, i.e., before seeing out his contract stint, he'd do so after next season at the earliest, so that he can first see how well Red Bull does with the upcoming technical regulation changes.
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