The Return of F1 Silly Season: Will Max Verstappen Leave Red Bull Racing?
Back in February 2024, one of the greatest shocks came to the world of Formula 1; Lewis Hamilton was set to move from Mercedes AMG Petronas to Scuderia Ferrari. After winning seven world titles with Mercedes, it was widely believed that he was set to retire with the team. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes were an iconic duo, known for one and the other. This news came as a huge surprise to anyone within the motorsport’s community, and held as a reminder that truly no one can ever predict the future of the sport. While many still did believed they could predict certain ideals, such as Max Verstappen never leaving Red Bull Racing. Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been fighting the way to become a duo as known as Mercedes and Hamilton. With that driver team pairing winning three world titles together so far, it seemed as if they were only just beginning a streak of domination. Verstappen is widely argued to be the best racing driver ever, or perhaps the best on the current grid and Red Bull has attempted to provide him with the best possible opportunities to leak that talent. But throughout this 2025 season, the team has been seen to let down Verstappen on multiple occasions, putting into question if the duo is as strong as many thoughts.
In the 2025 season, Max Verstappen is no longer in the fight for the championship title but rather has dropped drastically from leading by many points to being third in the Driver Championship with a 46-point gap to Lando Norris, the driver in second. Furthermore, Red Bull Racing currently only holds 162 points in the season putting them in fourth place in the team standings after previous dominating not too long ago. Much speculation has occurred as to why this team has had such a drastic downfall, yet nothing has definitive proof.
Many find the start of this downfall was back in February 2024, where Red Bull team principle, Christian Horner faced an intense investigation as to allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague. This caused a great disruption within the team and their reputation. Yet by February 28, 2024, Horner was cleared of any allegations. Even with this clearance, the Red Bull team took a grand hit to their reputation and fan base as many found the investigation into the allegations to not have been enough. These questioning thoughts seemed to have been proved correct, as the female colleague then appealed the decision made, but once again Horner was cleared, as the appeal was dismissed. Many details of this situation are not disclosed, but one moment that caused much uproar was the leakage of texts, allegedly between Horner and the colleague. While legally, this situation was seen to have been cleared up, Red Bull still received a lot of backlashes as many people, including Jos Verstappen (previous Formula 1 driver and father of Max Verstappen), called for the resignation of Christian Horner. Horner remained unaffected in his position by the entirety of this situation, but the media and fanbase did not forget what occurred, and many still did not believe in the final clearance.
While this has been speculated to be the downfall of the team, another point in which the team was seen to suffer, was the shocking announcement that Adrian Newey was to leave Red Bull in early 2025. Newey, a highly acclaimed Formula 1 engineer, had helped design the car that had brought Max Verstappen his many victories and titles. He had been a key player in the team's success and brought other teams, such as Willams and McLaren to World Championships. Many different rumors circulated as to the reasoning of Newey’s departure, who is now working for Aston Martin. Certain speculation found his departure to be related to the allegations against Christian Horner or certain future desires for a new role. There was no given reason as to departure of Newey from the team, but through Red Bull’s results in the 2025 season, his leave seems to have had a certain effect.
No one point can be placed on Red Bull’s change, but the speculation of Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, or the “cursed second seat” (having the pattern and threat of a ruined career when driving alongside Max Verstappen) all have the same conclusion; Red Bull Racing has begun their downfall. While they still have signed Max Verstappen, who is one of the best drivers on the grid, they remain to have points in their team, but their number one driver has been seen to lose hope within the team. Current speculation about Verstappen leaving Red Bull have grown in the past few days as Toto Wolff, team principle of Mercedes, has made it clear on certain conversations taking place with Verstappen. In many interviews both the driver and team principle have made it clear that it is within the realm of possibility for a new contract to be signed. While Verstappen is currently in a contract with Red Bull until 2028, there remains a release clause to allow him to leave the team if he were to finish outside the top four in the Drivers’ Championship, and currently he is not too far off. Moreover, the Mercedes driver George Russell has not signed a new contract with Mercedes extending at the end of 2025, even with excellent performances this season.
While nothing is yet confirmed with Max Verstappen leaving Red Bull Racing, through recent events within the team, the speculations only continue to grow. And after the shock of Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes in 2024, the fact remains that nothing can be predicted and there is a likelihood that Max Verstappen may depart from Red Bull Racing.
Written by Mira Johal
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