{"id":38671,"date":"2026-01-23T03:53:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=38671"},"modified":"2026-01-23T04:03:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:03:43","slug":"red-bull-admit-keeping-verstappen-beyond-2026-will-be-difficult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2026\/01\/23\/red-bull-admit-keeping-verstappen-beyond-2026-will-be-difficult\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull admit keeping Verstappen beyond 2026 will be difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen’s future was one of last year’s main talking points, with the Dutchman often linked to a Red Bull<\/a> departure. Specifically, Mercedes were mentioned as a plausible destination for Verstappen in 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n

An exit clause in Verstappen’s contract meant he could theoretically leave Red Bull before his deal concluded. However, this exit clause could only be activated if he was below third in the drivers’ standings at the summer break.<\/p>\n

Ironically, because he was marginally ahead of George Russell – whose Mercedes negotiations were delayed by their pursuit of Verstappen – meant that the 4-time Champion would continue at Milton Keynes in 2026.<\/p>\n

With that said, the Austrian squad is well aware that retaining the 28-year-old’s services will require an upward development trajectory.<\/p>\n

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Red Bull aim for quick learning curve with 2026 engines<\/h2>\n

In ordinary circumstances, Red Bull would be considered one of the favourites for a new set of regulations. Their track record speaks for itself, with a technical department that regularly finds solutions that others overlook.<\/p>\n

Of course, for several reasons, the situation at Milton Keynes is different to previous regulations. Starting in 2026, Red Bull will field their own power units – officially upgrading from their former customer team status.<\/p>\n

Assembling an engine department is a huge undertaking, which is partly why Laurent Mekies’ team has been to proactive in its recruitment in experienced and seasoned technicians from other teams.<\/p>\n

Red Bull Powertrains now has over 700 personnel at its disposal, a comparable figure to some of the more established manufacturers. Many of these engineers were signed from Mercedes and even Honda<\/a>, in part of what is becoming a hyper-competitive battle to emerge victorious in F1’s knowledge economy.<\/p>\n

News that Red Bull are working on the same compression ratio solution for their engines as Mercedes was widely perceived as a promising sign about their chances of adapting and being proactive with these 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n

Having said all this, the Austrian outfit know they are at the beginning of a very demanding journey.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, a team would set relatively modest targets for itself in their first campaign as an engine manufacturer. However, two factors make it impossible for Red Bull to give themselves this grace.<\/p>\n

The first is their winning history. As the sport’s most successful team of the 21st century, Red Bull have no intention of slowing down.<\/p>\n

The second motivating factor is to ensure they can persuade Max Verstappen to stay committed to their project. (cont. on next page)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Mekies admits Verstappen “takes the risk” with Red Bull<\/h4>\n

Laurent Mekies<\/a> had an instant impact when he became Red Bull team principal, rejuvenating their mid-season development and finding ways to extract more performance from a problematic and often non-compliant RB21.<\/p>\n

This is not to say everything was smooth sailing last year. In order to maximise Verstappen’s title chances, upgrades on Yuki Tsunoda’s car were essentially abandoned. By making this sacrifice, the Austrian team could cut costs whilst also bringing improvements to the #1 machine.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Mekies’ technical background makes him well-placed to oversee this transitional phase for the team.<\/p>\n

The question is whether Red Bull’s engine will be close enough to the benchmark (widely expected to be Mercedes<\/a>) when 2026 begins. Realistically, matching the Silver Arrows from the first Grand Prix is not necessarily a realistic target.<\/p>\n

Instead, Red Bull want their power unit to be sufficiently close to Mercedes so that their aerodynamic department is within striking range. In many ways, a reliable engine that is reasonable efficient would be a good enough starting point to kick-off 2026.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Autosport Business Exchange, Laurent Mekies spoke about the challenge of delivering Verstappen with a winning car:<\/p>\n

“One of the many incredible things with Max is that he’s not sitting outside of the project, watching what we do and judging what we do.<\/em><\/p>\n

“He is in the project. He takes the risk with us, he’s aware of the risk taking.” <\/em><\/p>\n

Mekies made sure to emphasise that Verstappen is conscious of the position Red Bull are in:<\/p>\n

“He’s aware that we take risks, as do Ford, he\u2019s aware of the scale of the challenge. He lives and breathes motorsport – more than a large part of us…<\/em><\/p>\n

“We think Max wants a fast car. So we think the best way to make sure he wants to stay with us for as long as we can imagine, is to give him a fast car. A combination of a fast chassis and a fast power unit.<\/em><\/p>\n

“As we say, we may not get that at the right level for race one. But because he understands so well motorsport, he will see the trajectories.<\/em><\/p>\n

“And hopefully we can show him a strong enough trajectory that he feels this group of people is going to produce the fastest car possible.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Rivals will monitor Verstappen’s availability<\/h4>\n

It is no secret that Verstappen feels a great sense of loyalty to Red Bull. This is why the Dutchman consistently names the Austrian team as where he sees his future in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

His existing contract, which does not expire until 2028, is also an important factor. Still, it must be remembered that exit clauses could give the 28-year-old the flexibility. These exit clauses will be largely dependent on whether Red Bull find themselves off the pace.<\/p>\n

For all of Verstappen’s obvious affection towards Red Bull, his objective is still to win. This means, should Red Bull not be in a position to fight for titles, other teams will sense an opportunity.<\/p>\n

The conversations between Toto Wolff and Max Verstappen<\/a> in 2025, therefore, are extremely relevant. Despite contractual limitations, the Mercedes team principal spent months negotiating with the Dutchman.<\/p>\n

Wolff did this despite the awkward position it put his existing drivers, including George Russell<\/a>. In the end, it was only Verstappen’s inability to activate his exit clause (due to his Championship position at the summer break) that definitively ended talks for 2026.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, however, that there was clear interest between both parties. Moreover, it seems unlikely that Toto Wolff’s interest in the Quadruple World Champion will go away any time soon.<\/p>\n

Beyond Mercedes, other teams are eager to see how the situation at Red Bull develops in 2026<\/a>. Whilst Mercedes are seen as one of the favourites this year, there are plenty of teams with ambitions of the front.<\/p>\n

Whichever team leads the pack this season will be in the strongest negotiations position. The question becomes whether Red Bull give Verstappen enough reason to believe they can fight for titles.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Mark Thompson\/Getty Images (Red Bull Content Pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen’s future was one of last year’s main talking points, with the Dutchman often linked to a Red Bull departure. Specifically, Mercedes were mentioned as a plausible destination for Verstappen in 2026 and beyond. An exit clause in Verstappen’s contract meant he could theoretically leave Red Bull before his deal concluded. However, this exit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":38672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2582,2556,79],"class_list":["post-38671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2026-season","tag-laurent-mekies","tag-max-verstappen"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38671"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38683,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38671\/revisions\/38683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}