Max Verstappen ends Mercedes speculation by confirming Red Bull future for 2026

Max Verstappen has confirmed that he will drive for Red Bull in 2026, ending speculation linking him with Mercedes.

Over the past year, Verstappen has been heavily linked with a sensational switch to Mercedes.

Toto Wolff explored the option of bringing Verstappen to Mercedes as a possible Lewis Hamilton replacement for 2025.

However, Verstappen decided to stay put, particularly as he won his fourth world title at Red Bull.

Red Bull’s decline in performance this year has resulted in further speculation.

However, ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen finally confirmed that he will be at Red Bull next year.

“It’s quite interesting to follow all of that. The amount of nice stories that came out of it. For me, I’ve never really said anything about it because I was just focused on talking to the team about how we can improve our performance, future ideas for next year as well, and that’s why I had nothing really to add,” Verstappen said in Budapest, where Crash.net are in the paddock.

“But I think it’s time to basically stop all the rumours, and for me it’s always been quite clear that I was staying anyway.

“I think that was also the general feeling in the team anyway, because we were always in discussions about what we could do with the car. And when you’re not interested in staying, then you also stop talking about these kinds of things – and I never did.”

Verstappen was then asked if his future will be a talking point again in 12 months.

He replied: “I don’t know. I mean if you ask me that question next year, then yes, and we’ll have that speculation.

“But I never speak about it, because I’m more interested in just working on the performance of things, so that’s why I also never really talk about what is in my contract.”

Verstappen not giving up on 2025

Max Verstappen currently sits a distant third in the drivers’ standings.

While Verstappen has won two races, Red Bull is behind Ferrari and Mercedes in the constructors’ championship.

Even though Verstappen and Red Bull have no hopes of winning either title, because of McLaren’s form, the Dutchman thinks there’s still a lot to learn this year.

“No one really knows for next year where they will be at,” he explained. “And for us this year, realistically it’s going to be very difficult to fight McLaren. I think it’s already difficult enough to fight with Ferrari and Mercedes.

“But I think there’s still a lot of opportunity to learn more about the car and the behaviour of the car. Of course, I know that the cars will be different next year , but there are still things that you can take out of this year on the engineering side of things and also implement for next year.

“So, you cannot just say: ‘Okay, we’re not winning the championship this year, so we just write it off completely.’”