Montoya warns Red Bull and Verstappen that they "could be where Williams are” in 26

Since their record-breaking 2023 season, the Austrian team have not been able to find themselves at the front of the grid as much as they would have wanted, with the RB21 proving to be a real handful in 2025.

Red Bull will introduce its own developed and built engines in 2026 in collaboration with Ford, and Montoya suggests, in conversation with a betting site, that no one knows how good these engines will be, but he fears the worst, continuing their downward trend.

“Red Bull next year could be running where Williams is running,” said the seven time Grands Prix winner.

The Colombian continues on by thinking that Max Verstappen should consider whether he should stay at Red Bull after this season, in case this worst-case scenario becomes a reality.

But where should the Dutchman go? The former driver immediately says that there is no room at McLaren.

“Would Toto [Wolff] get rid of [Kimi] Antonelli to accommodate Max? Or would you get rid of George [Russell]? I don’t know how clear the option is there. Basically, if Max went to Mercedes, whoever left Mercedes would go to Red Bull," continued Montoya.

The Colombian then openly wonders: “If you had to make a decision tomorrow, would you get rid of George? George has been a Mercedes guy for a long time. It’s not like the only eyes were for Antonelli. And Antonelli’s done a very good job being a rookie. So the question is, do you want to pair George with Max? Do you want to pair Max with Antonelli?”

One last option that team boss Wolff has is to continue with the duo of Antonelli and Russell: “I know Toto was desperate to have Max last year. Is he still desperate this year to have Max? I’m not so sure.”