Red Bull boss, Laurent Mekies is confident that Max Verstappen will remain with the team in 2027, despite rumours linking him with both Mercedes and McLaren.
Currently seventh in the standings, and although under contract with the Austrian team until the end of 2028, it is widely believed that there are various performance clauses in his contract should Red Bull fail to deliver.
For much of last year the Dutchman was linked with Mercedes, but the Austrian team’s turnaround, which allowed him to take the title fight down to the wire appeared to allay the speculation.
However, the regulations overhaul was always going to be another test of the four-time world champion’s loyalty, for other than the fact that Red Bull was going it alone and building its own engine, it was widely thought that, as in 2014, Mercedes would do the best job with the new rules.
Then there is the fact that numerous key figures the Dutchman has worked with since joining the team have now left, with his engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase heading to Woking next year.
Though the FIA sees the Red Bull engine as the best out there, Verstappen is unlikely to agree, and while Kimi Antonelli’s devastating start to the season may have closed down one particular avenue, in recent weeks McLaren has entered the mix.
Nonetheless, Mekies is convinced that Verstappen will remain.
“Max has made it clear to us that he wants to continue with the team,” the Frenchman told reporters. “It’s equally clear that he needs a fast car for him to be happy with the team.
“As I said a few weeks ago, we are not asking Max every week,” he continued. “He’s pushing with us, he’s helping us to find the right development path for the car. Again this morning, he’s doing very large tests, scans through the sessions to try to turn all the stones possible,” he added, referring to the opening practice session.
“It’s not a topic for us,” he insisted of Verstapepn’s future, “the topic for us is to get the car back to where we want it to be. And as you may agree, if the car is back where we want to be there will be no discussion.
“I’m convinced that Max wants to see continuous progress. And again, he knows very well that you don’t go from a one second gap to zero in no time. But he wants to see that path, I’m sure, to continue to improve.
“I think it’s only about, to your questions, overall lap time,” he added. “So if we can close that gap to only a couple of tenths, it would mean that we still keep having the gap to the competition come down and we’ll be in this fighting ground soon.”
Meanwhile, speculation in the Spielberg paddock has chief engineer Paul Monaghan heading to Cadillac. Monaghan, joined Red Bull in 2005, having begun his F1 career with McLaren in 1990. In 2000 he h=joined Benetton, remaining as it morphed into Renault, working with Fernando Alonso when the Spaniard scored his first win.
“If I look at the names that have been circulating the last few months, most of them are still in the garage,” said Mekies when asked about Monaghan. “Some have never wanted to leave, some have changed their minds, and some are staying with us. So I don’t think it would be fair for our people, through the ranks, that I start commenting on all the rumours.
“Paul is actually here today,” he added. “He has been working very hard to get our car out this morning. And as I said, we also made very clear that there is nothing more important to us than making sure we are in a position to keep our balance and to attract the ones we need, and that remains the highest priority.”
This being the team’s home race, all the top Red Bull brass is attending and no doubt Verstappen’s future will be the main topic of conversation.