Max Is Sticking With Red Bull: I Told You So

Let me start by making one thing clear. This isn’t a reporting article. If you want the news, the news is simple: Max Verstappen has extended his contract with Red Bull through 2030. This article is about something much more important: me being right. Yes, I’m taking my victory lap.

In an earlier Ethical Sports Takes article, I said that I simply couldn’t see Max Verstappen leaving Red Bull. For years we have heard rumors about Mercedes, and more recently other possibilities have entered the conversation. Every time Red Bull struggled, every time something changed inside the organization and every time Max appeared frustrated, the speculation started again. Where is Max going next? My answer remained the same: nowhere.

Now Verstappen and Red Bull have finally put an end to the conversation by agreeing to a new contract that will keep him with the team through the end of the 2030 season. After years of rumors and speculation, Max is staying exactly where I thought he would.

Why I Never Bought the Rumors

My reasoning was never that Mercedes or another team wouldn’t want Max Verstappen. Of course they would. If arguably the best driver on the grid becomes available, every serious Formula 1 team should at least make the phone call. My argument was always about Max himself.

Everything we have seen from Verstappen throughout his career suggests that he values loyalty, comfort and being surrounded by people he trusts. Red Bull gave him his opportunity, promoted him to the senior team at an incredibly young age and eventually built its championship winning era around him. This isn’t simply an employer and employee relationship anymore. Red Bull is Max’s team.

He joined the Red Bull family as a teenager, moved to the senior team in 2016 and immediately won his first race for them in Spain. Together they went through the years of Mercedes dominance, slowly built themselves into championship contenders and eventually reached the top of Formula 1.

Then came 2021. Max finally won his first World Championship after an incredible season long fight with Lewis Hamilton. Then he won again in 2022, again in 2023 and again in 2024. Four consecutive World Championships. Red Bull didn’t just give Max a Formula 1 seat. The two sides built a dynasty together. That’s why I never believed one difficult period was automatically going to send him running somewhere else.

The Rumors Were Everywhere

To be fair, the speculation wasn’t created out of absolutely nothing. Mercedes had shown interest in Verstappen, and Red Bull’s performance declining from the incredible standard it established during its championship years only added fuel to the rumors.

The beginning of the new regulations in 2026 made the conversation even louder. Red Bull has struggled to match the frontrunners, while Mercedes has emerged as the team to beat. If you looked purely at performance, you could understand why people thought Max might consider leaving.

But Max has never struck me as someone desperate to jump from team to team chasing whatever car happens to be fastest at that moment. That isn’t his personality, and now we know just how strongly he felt about staying.

Max Basically Confirmed My Take

This is the part where I’m going to enjoy myself.

After announcing the extension, Verstappen explained that he had actually been closer to leaving Formula 1 than changing teams. He has also made it clear that he never felt the need to move elsewhere simply to prove that he could win with another organization.

Thank you, Max. That’s basically the argument I was making.

His biggest uncertainty wasn’t whether he should drive for Mercedes or somebody else. It was whether he wanted to continue racing in Formula 1 at all. That’s an enormous difference. Max has spent a decade with the Red Bull organization and has repeatedly described the team as a second family. Red Bull has become his Formula 1 home.

That is why I couldn’t picture him putting on another team’s race suit. If Red Bull struggled badly enough, I could picture Max deciding that he had accomplished everything he wanted in Formula 1 and simply walking away. I could picture him going endurance racing or deciding that he was tired of Formula 1 altogether. What I struggled to picture was Max Verstappen abandoning the organization that has essentially become his home just to chase another championship somewhere else.

Apparently Max struggled to picture it too.

Loyalty Still Matters

Formula 1 is obviously a business. Drivers change teams, engineers change teams and organizations will replace people when they believe somebody else gives them a better opportunity to win. But sometimes relationships become bigger than that.

Max and Red Bull have already achieved almost everything there is to achieve together. World Championships, race wins, records and one of the most dominant stretches Formula 1 has ever seen. Now comes a different challenge: can they get back to the top?

That’s actually what makes this extension interesting beyond my shameless victory lap. Staying with Red Bull while they’re dominating is easy. Staying when Mercedes currently has the advantage requires belief that the organization can build another championship winning car. Max is betting that they can, and Red Bull is betting that the driver who helped deliver their greatest era can help lead them into the next one.

Fine, I’ll Stop Gloating Now

Sports predictions are difficult, and I’m going to get plenty wrong. Anyone who writes opinions and predictions long enough is eventually going to publish something that ages terribly. So when I get one right, I’m absolutely going to enjoy it.

I said Max Verstappen wasn’t leaving Red Bull. The rumors kept coming. Mercedes was mentioned. Red Bull struggled. And now Max Verstappen has signed through 2030.

Sometimes a take ages pretty well.

Max is sticking with Red Bull. I told you so.

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