Max Verstappen could take a sabbatical from F1 at the end of his current Red Bull contract at the conclusion of the F1 2028 season.

That is the claim of Jos Verstappen, who is adamant that his son will see out the entirety of his Red Bull deal despite interest from Mercedes.

Max Verstappen to take sabbatical at end of Red Bull contract?

Verstappen has established himself as one of the greatest drivers in F1 history over recent years and could clinch a fourth consecutive World Championship in Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The Dutchman hold a 62-point lead over Lando Norris ahead of the race in Nevada, with Verstappen starting ahead of the McLaren driver on the grid.

Another title triumph would see Verstappen become only the second driver in F1 history after Red Bull icon Sebastian Vettel, who dominated between 2010 and 2013, to win his first four World Championships in successive years.

Despite being under a long-term contract with Red Bull, Verstappen has been frequently linked with a move away from the Milton Keynes outfit across F1 2024 due to the team’s decline in competitiveness and the tensions between his father and team principal Christian Horner.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff made no secret of his desire to sign Verstappen before deciding on teenage sensation Andrea Kimi Antonelli as Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton’s successor for F1 2025.

With Mercedes opting against specifying the length of Antonelli’s contract, however, and George Russell’s deal expiring in 12 months’ time, the team are expected to renew their interest in Verstappen ahead of the F1 2026 rule changes, for which Mercedes’ preparations are believed to be advanced.

Aston Martin, who lured F1 design guru Adrian Newey from Red Bull earlier this year and will enter a technical partnership with Red Bull’s current engine suppliers Honda from F1 2026, have also been linked with an ambitious move for Verstappen.

Horner confirmed to media including PlanetF1.com at August’s Dutch Grand Prix that Verstappen’s contract contains a “performance element” potentially allowing him to leave the team before 2028.

A report in the British media last month claimed that the rumoured contract clause will give Verstappen the freedom to leave Red Bull next year if he is lower than third in the Drivers’ Championship “after a significant part of the season” has been completed.

If true, that would echo the arrangement believed to have been included in one of Verstappen’s previous Red Bull deals when the 27-year-old was last heavily linked with Mercedes in 2019.

Speaking to Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport, Mr Verstappen has insisted that his son will compete his current Red Bull contract.

And he raised the possibility of the F1 2024 champion elect, who has frequently complained about the expanding F1 calendar, taking a sabbatical before returning to a race seat down the line.

Asked how much longer his son will compete in F1, Mr Verstappen said: “We have a contract with Red Bull until 2028 and we’ll get there, then we’ll see.

“We’ll have to see if Max will still be interested in F1.

“All his life he’s been told what he has to do, including by me, and now it’s happening with the team. There will come a time when he wants to decide.

“There is certainly more to his life than F1 and Max is aware of that. He listens a lot to his feelings, he knows what he wants, but it’s difficult to say what will happen.

“Maybe he will stop for a year in the future and then he will feel like coming back.

“Certainly, it’s not the records that motivate him. He doesn’t need to win seven or eight world championships, he is already happy with what he has achieved.”

Asked specifically about Mercedes’ interest in the Red Bull star, Mr Verstappen replied: “[It’s] normal. They want the fastest driver.”

Verstappen himself recently indicated a desire to see out his Red Bull contract, telling AFP: “That’s definitely the intention.

“I signed a long-term deal with the team and in a perfect world we of course end it here.”

Mercedes previously emerged as F1’s dominant force at the start of the V6-hybrid engine era in 2014, after which the team won a record eight consecutive Constructors’ titles and seven straight Drivers’ crowns split between Hamilton (six) and Nico Rosberg (one).

With the F1 2026 rules featuring sweeping changes to the engine and chassis regulations, including a move to 50 per cent electrification and fully sustainable fuels, many are expecting the Brackley-based operation to ace the sport’s new era.

Speaking to Sky Germany during a visit to this year’s Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes chief executive Ola Kallenius teased that the F1 2026 rule changes will represent “an opportunity” to lure Verstappen, quipping that the Red Bull star “would look good in silver.”

He said: “The best driver wants to have the best car. And that’s our job, to bring the best package together.

“The cards will be reshuffled in 2026. New order with new rules. That’s also an opportunity. Who knows?

“But I think Max would look good in silver, wouldn’t he?”

Appearing on the Formula For Success podcast in the summer, former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan claimed that Wolff and Kallenius – as well as Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the owner of one-third Mercedes owner INEOS – met in Monaco earlier this year to prepare a “fighting fund” to cover Verstappen’s salary in anticipation of the Dutchman’s arrival.

Jordan said: “In Monaco there was a meeting between Toto, Jim Ratcliffe of INEOS [and] Ola Kallenius and together they put together a fighting fund to cover off the possibility of a salary requirement to cover Max.

“Max was aware of it. I’m not actually sure he was at the meeting, but surely that gives some indication about the steely commitment by Toto and his team to actually get Max on board at some stage.

“We shouldn’t be surprised to see Max in a Mercedes car in the next years.”

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