Verstappen Leaving Red Bull After 2025? Berger Offers Insight
Feb.12 - 2025 could be Max Verstappen's final year at Red Bull, according to the energy drink brand's first ever sponsored athlete.
Amid rumours Ferrari will unveil a darker red livery this season, there are also rumblings that Red Bull could finally take a bold step away from its usual dark blue matte look for 2025.
The rumours coincide with news that Verstappen will wear the clothing of Red Bull's fashion brand AlphaTauri throughout the entire season.
The quadruple world champion is openly advocating for a F1 livery change too. "We've had so many matte blue cars - sometimes I think it's nice to spice things up a bit," he said.
Verstappen, 27, is likely to get his way, given the situation inside the team at present. Red Bull was mired in internal conflict in 2024, with Italy's Autosprint magazine now reporting both power and reliability issues with the Ford-backed Red Bull Powertrains project for 2026.
Rumours of a billion-dollar offer on the table for Verstappen from Aston Martin, where Adrian Newey has ended up for 2025 and beyond, are also swirling.
Gerhard Berger, the first athlete ever to be backed by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz way back in 1984, watched the F1 team's fall from utter dominance last year with dismay.
"It is well known that it takes much longer to build something than it does to dismantle it," the F1 legend told Auto Motor und Sport.
"But no one would have thought that just six months after Didi Mateschitz's death, everything would crumble."
Berger, 65, admits that the turmoil surrounding Christian Horner last year may have signalled "the beginning of the end".
"Formula 1 is so complex and so competitive that you can only be successful if everyone in the team pulls together, everyone agrees, everyone communicates well with each other," he said.
"The Red Bull brand has always radiated happiness and a cool image. Suddenly everything has changed."
He said that became abundantly clear when it took Red Bull so long to conclude that Sergio Perez should be ousted. "No one in the professional world understood why he was still being given a contract," Berger said.
"In Mateschitz's time, Red Bull was always famous for clarity."
Berger says whether Red Bull could pull out of its nosedive will be the key to whether Verstappen triggers an exit clause.
"It will be exciting to see whether Red Bull can return to its old strength or whether Verstappen will continue to have difficulty winning," he said. "Then he will consider whether he is still in the right team."
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Not yet after the upcoming season in any case, but after the 2026 season at the earliest, depending on how well Red Bull gets on with the upcoming technical regulation changes.
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