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Does Max Verstappen have a tough choice? Not at all!

20 June at 10:26
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  • Ludo van Denderen

Usually, Ted Kravitz (Sky Sports F1's pit-lane reporter) is pretty well-versed in the F1 world. But Ted is also sometimes completely wrong, for example when he states that Max Verstappen is in a tough position for '26. In fact, the opposite is true.

It is no secret that things are still not going well internally at Red Bull Racing, and what's more, the Verstappen camp has its doubts about the power of the Red Bull Powertrain, which is in the back of the Austrian cars from '26 onwards. Verstappen is therefore keeping open the option of moving after '25, in which case Mercedes is the most logical destination. For next year, Verstappen will stay where he is, GPblog was able to report recently.

Kravitz is dead wrong

Yet Ted Kravitz argues in his employer's F1 podcast that Verstappen may be forced to switch to Mercedes now in advance, to avoid there being no place for him at the German team in '26. But that is an argument that obviously misses the point. Toto Wolff said recently that every team in Formula 1 would make room for the Dutchman if he wanted to come.

Certainly Mercedes even, the team that so craves new successes. If - as expected - Andrea Kimi Antonelli succeeds Lewis Hamilton after the current season and becomes George Russell's teammate, it is anything but a guarantee that the German team will immediately compete for the top prizes again. Even if it does, Wolff will unthinkingly show one of his drivers the door as soon as Verstappen indicates he wants to come to Mercedes.

'No Max, we already have Russell'

Surely a conversation with Toto Wolff like this is truly unimaginable: "Thanks Max for your interest, but we already have George Russell. Good luck finding a nice team!" No of course not. George Russell - whose contract expires after '25 - is of a completely different calibre of driver than Verstappen, and Wolff will not hesitate for a second to choose the Dutchman over him.

So Verstappen does not have a tough choice to make at all in the short term. On the contrary, the three-time world champion has the entire driver market in his hands as long as he competes in Formula 1. Wherever the Dutchman wants to drive, the doors will always open wide for him. Strange that Ted Kravitz doesn't see that.

This article was written in collaboration with Ben Stevens