The four-time world champion remains contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028, but speculation over his future continues to intensify amid the team’s difficult start to 2026.
Despite delivering a season-best second in Austria, Verstappen sits well down the drivers’ championship in seventh and 98 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Verstappen has only scored two podiums so far this season.
Speaking with De Telegraaf, his manager Raymond Vermeulen stressed the priority remained to continue with Red Bull but made clear that loyalty will only go so far if the team cannot give Verstappen a competitive car.
“Our goal is to finish this adventure together with Red Bull,” Vermeulen said.
“The spirit of Red Bull and the spirit of Verstappen, they match. We just need a package that allows us to fight at the front. That has always been the foundation.
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“We feel at home at Red Bull, but we want to be competitive.
“In the end, Max wasn’t born to race in the midfield.”
The comments come as reports emerged during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend that Verstappen’s management had held preliminary talks with McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
McLaren has no obvious vacancy, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri tied down to long-term deals.
Brown, however, did not completely dismiss the idea of the Dutchman joining the team when asked about him on the grid by Sky Sports F1.
“I’d be very surprised if Lando or Oscar went elsewhere, because they are very happy,” he said.
“Of course they have contracts but besides that, we’re very happy with them and they are very happy here.
“If for some strange reason someone slipped on a banana peel getting out of the tub, then yeah of course, Max is a four-time world champion.”
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Verstappen also played down the latest speculation when asked about the reports, suggesting he had little interest in the noise around his future.
“It doesn’t do anything for me and I don’t pay any attention to it,” he said.
“These days it’s all very easy. With AI, you can Photoshop anything you want.”
A long-rumoured Mercedes move for Verstappen also continues to linger, although that route appears increasingly difficult after George Russell declared in Austria that he was certain he would remain with the team in 2027.
“No announcement this weekend but I’ll be racing here [at Mercedes] next year, 100 percent,” Russell said when asked about his future with the team beyond this season.
“It hasn’t even been discussed [with team principal Toto Wolff]. We don’t need to discuss it. It’s not even a question mark.
“I don’t want to go into any more detail, but I will be here next year and that’s the fact of it.”
Wolff later backed Mercedes’ current pairing of Russell and championship leader Kimi Antonelli, telling Sky Sports F1 he had no desire to change the line-up.
“Yeah, we don’t want to change things, and we’ve said that also to George,” he said.
“I think it’s a line-up that is good for us. I’m very happy with the two of them.”
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies also insisted Verstappen wants to stay with the team, while acknowledging it must give him a car capable of returning to the front.
“Max has made clear to us that he wants to continue with the team. It’s equally clear that he needs a fast car for him to be happy with the team,” Mekies said.
The latest round of speculation came on Verstappen’s strongest weekend of the season in Austria, where Red Bull’s major upgrade package helped him emerge as a genuine threat.
Verstappen looked on course to fight for pole or a front-row start before crashing out of qualifying, but recovered on Sunday to finish second behind Russell for his best result of 2026.
Asked what Red Bull needed to show to convince him about its longer-term direction, Verstappen kept his answer brief.
“They know, but I don’t need to talk too much about it.”
The Austria performance gave Red Bull encouragement, but Verstappen said the team still needed more before it could be sure its latest step was enough.
“Most of the upgrades worked well. There are a few things we still need to look at to see whether they can be improved,” he said.
“Overall, I think it was a bit better, although this is obviously a very short lap. That naturally means that the gaps are a bit smaller.
“We’re still behind, though, so we have to wait for the coming races to see what it looks like there.”
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