Max Verstappen's father and manager have been spotted meeting with former Red Bull ally Helmut Marko as the Dutchman and his entourage strongly consider walking away from the team. Verstappen has spent a decade racing in Formula 1 for the outfit but never has he given more serious thought to a fresh start elsewhere as he is right now.
Performance Woes and Internal Changes
His frustration with his car's lack of performance has been evident for some time and last weekend's action at Silverstone was one of the low points of a testing season. He struggled for pace throughout the Sprint race and then qualifying, before crashing out of the Grand Prix because of a failure on his rear wing. Plus, there have been so many internal changes that Verstappen is devoid of many long-term allies within the Red Bull camp. One of the few who remains, race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, will not be there for long as he has agreed to join McLaren in 2028 and will have to serve a lengthy period of gardening leave before beginning work there.
Contract Exit Clause Active
Despite being contracted until 2028 himself, Verstappen has the mechanisms needed to cut ties with Red Bull, should he wish to. After his scoreless Sunday at Silverstone, he is no longer mathematically able to be second in the drivers' championship by the summer break which means, it is understood, that a performance-based exit clause will be active until October. It is a possible outcome that Verstappen is said to be giving more serious consideration to than ever before. Reported tensions with the main Red Bull company's Austria-based top brass are playing a part, while his manager Raymond Vermeulen has been assessing his client's options, including opening talks with McLaren over a potential switch.
Meeting with Helmut Marko
Verstappen's camp has also publicly reunited with one of those close allies who has left Red Bull in recent times. Long-serving team adviser Marko, who left at the end of last season, was spotted at a hotel in Amsterdam on Thursday in deep conversation with Vermeulen and Jos Verstappen. While the topic of conversation is not known, it's difficult to imagine the subject of the four-time world champion's future didn't come up. The sighting was reported by journalist Erik van Haren, who tweeted: "Vandaag gespot in Amsterdam: Max Verstappens manager Raymond Vermeulen en vader Jos met voormalig Red Bull-topman Helmut Marko. Wat daar besproken is, is niet bekend."
Jenson Button's Warning
Given the loss of so many long-time allies at Red Bull, and the team's lack of competitiveness, 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button can see Verstappen starting over somewhere else if all he can envisage is more time spent fighting in the midfield. He told an event put on by ticket resale site Viagogo: "There's Gianpiero Lambiase, you have Jonathan Wheatley, and obviously Paul Monaghan who are leaving the team, so he's probably thinking, where do we go from here? So his manager would be wrong to not ask around for other opportunities in the sport. Max has a shelf life, because he will get bored of being in the midfield and he'll want to go and race in something else. He can do amazing things with a race car but he also wants to have fun, he wants to enjoy himself, and fighting further down the field isn't what he's here for."
