Max Verstappen and Red Bull have not won in F1 2024 since the Spanish GP on June 23

Max Verstappen has warned Red Bull that he “will go elsewhere” if he wants to amid persistent rumours that he could make a sensational move to Mercedes for the F1 2026 season.

And he has refused to confirm whether his current Red Bull contract contains a release clause, despite team principal Christian Horner’s recent admission that a “performance element” exists within the deal.

Max Verstappen addresses Red Bull future, contract clause rumours

Despite holding a contract until the end of the 2028 season, Verstappen has been frequently linked with a move away from Red Bull throughout F1 2024 due to the team’s waning on-track performance and the tensions between Horner and Verstappen’s father Jos.

Mercedes made no secret of their desire to sign Verstappen, with team boss Toto Wolff commenting earlier this year that he “would love to have” the reigning three-time World Champion.

Lewis Hamilton’s shock move to Ferrari created a vacancy at Mercedes, who ultimately elected to promote teenage sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli as the seven-time World Champion’s successor.

With Mercedes opting not to specify the length of Antonelli’s contract, however, and George Russell’s current deal set to expire at the end of F1 2025, it has been suggested that the Brackley-based team could renew their interest in Verstappen ahead of F1’s major regulation changes in F1 2026.

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at last month’s Dutch Grand Prix, Horner insisted that Verstappen and Red Bull “have an agreement until 2028” before conceding that “every contract has a performance element in it.”

Horner went on to outline his optimism that Verstappen will see out his contract with Red Bull as long as the team “deliver and provide a competitive car.”

Having produced the most dominant season in history in 2023, winning all but one race as the Dutchman eased to a third consecutive World Championship, Red Bull and Verstappen are without a victory in eight races – their longest barren run since the 2020 season.

Verstappen has said that he is “quite relaxed” about his F1 future, remarking that he will not hesitate to swap Red Bull for another team if he wants to leave, but has insisted that he is not currently planning to depart the current Constructors’ Champions.

He told Sky Italy: “People talk a lot more about these things than I do.

“I am very relaxed I just think about driving and trying to understand my problems and improve. Then I go home and live my life.

“I am quite relaxed about the future. For me it’s very simple, I like what I do and as long as I enjoy it I will stay here and continue driving in F1.

“If I want to go elsewhere, I will go elsewhere. But at the moment it is not in my head.”

Asked directly if a clause in his contract could allow him to leave Red Bull before 2028, he replied: “Maybe yes or maybe no.

“Again, I don’t think about that at the moment, because there are so many things this year that I want to try to understand and do better than the years to come and what happens after that is still far away for me, so I don’t have it in my head at the moment.”

Verstappen went on to reiterate his stance that his next move will be the “last step” of his F1 career, having frequently warned over recent years that he is likely to retire young to explore opportunities in other categories of motor racing.

And he has not ruled out the possibility of extending his stay at Red Bull beyond 2028, insisting that “everything is pending” as it stands.

He explained: “For my part I think I’ve already been with this team for a long time.

“Then clearly people always want to win, everyone in the paddock wants to win, so you can very easily go from one side to the other over the years.

“But I don’t want my F1 career to be like that, I don’t want to be part of four or five teams. I want to build a long and stable and nice relationship with everybody in the team and feel at home.

“Changing teams often is not nice for me. It’s also something I don’t want to do at this stage of my career.

“My next step, if there ever is one, will be my last step.

“But the next step could also be the renewal with the team. Everything is pending at the moment.”

Verstappen’s comments come after Horner expressed an interest in Russell, telling Sky F1 in Singapore that Red Bull would be “foolish” to overlook Russell as an option for F1 2026 as he nears the end of his contract amid doubts over the futures of both Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez.

Reports from Germany last week claimed his father has a gentleman’s agreement in place with Wolff for the Red Bull man to join Mercedes in F1 2026, with Verstappen Sr and his manager Raymond Vermeulen said to be banking on Mercedes acing the F1 2026 rules.

Mercedes previously emerged as F1’s dominant force following the last engine regulation changes in 2014, after which the team stormed to a record eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships and seven straight Drivers’ titles split between Hamilton (six) and Nico Rosberg (one), with the team’s preparations for F1 2026 widely believed to be advanced.

Earlier this year, the former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan claimed that Mercedes’ top brass – including Wolff, chairman Ola Kallenius and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the chief of key Mercedes sponsor and one-third team owner INEOS – met in Monaco to prepare a “fighting fund” to cover Verstappen’s salary.

Jordan suggested that Verstappen himself “was aware” of the meeting, with a switch to Mercedes on the cards in “the next few years.”

Jordan, 76, famously predicted Hamilton’s shock move from McLaren to Mercedes at the end of the 2012 season.