Max Verstappen Signs Red Bull Contract Extension Through 2030 After Admitting He Was ‘Closer to Retiring’ Than Switching Teams

• Max Verstappen has signed a new Red Bull contract that keeps him with the team until at least the end of the 2030 season.
• The four-time champion said he came closer to considering retirement than joining a rival team before putting pen to paper.
• The news arrives on the eve of Verstappen’s home Dutch Grand Prix, the final edition of the race before it drops off the F1 calendar.

Max Verstappen has signed a new contract with Red Bull that will keep him at the team until at least the end of the 2030 season, closing the door on months of speculation about his future in Formula 1.

The announcement came on the eve of Verstappen’s home Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, the last edition of the race before it disappears from the calendar. His previous deal had been set to expire at the end of 2028, and his management were understood to have held talks with McLaren earlier this year over a possible switch for 2027.

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‘I Was Closer to Retiring Than Changing Teams’

Asked in a Red Bull press conference at Zandvoort on Thursday whether he had come close to considering a future away from the team, and whether rival offers had existed, Verstappen replied: “I think I was closer to retiring than changing teams! But, no, all good.”

Pressed again in the later official drivers’ press conference about the existence of any rival offers, he added: “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, does it? Well, not to me.”

Verstappen’s previous deal contained performance break clauses, and it had appeared earlier in the season that he might walk away from the sport altogether over his dissatisfaction with the new 2026 power unit regulations, which split output roughly evenly between electrical and combustion power.

He described just how close that frustration pushed him. “I have to say after the first few races I said to Laurent [Mekies, Red Bull’s team principal], ‘don’t come to me with any kind of questions about the future, because I don’t even know if I want to stay! But honestly, we always kept it very open. I mean, I love racing and I think I had a lot of very good discussions with F1, but also with the FIA, and I think we are, let’s say, slowly working towards something that becomes better and better.”

Talks between the sport’s stakeholders led to an early-season refinement of the rules and an agreement to reduce the share of electrical power for 2027 and 2028. Verstappen said he had adapted to the current package rather than getting everything he wanted. “Also from my side, of course, you know, I adapted, I accept the situation that I think we’re all in and just trying to make the best of that. I think also with the year that I signed to, it again opens up the door maybe when potentially the V8s come in to look at that again as well.”

He was referring to the fact that 2030 could line up with the start of F1’s next engine formula, which is exploring a return to V8 engines running on low-carbon fuels with some electrification, last used in the sport in 2013.

“It’s what I said a bit before where I accepted kind of the situation that we’re in,” he continued. “Personally, of course, I’m not happy with it but, at the same time, with the discussions that I’ve had with F1 and FIA already trying to make little improvements for next year or the year after. Plus, the year that I signed to, leaving the door open for a potential V8 return, I’m willing to accept that at the moment. It’s, let’s say, not fantastic but I still love racing. It’s still a Formula 1 car. And some tracks are better than others. But, yeah, for sure, we know that in some areas I think we can improve. So, hopefully, over the years, it will get a little bit better.”

A Family He Never Wanted to Leave

Verstappen was first signed to Red Bull’s junior programme as a 16-year-old in 2014 and made his senior team debut in a mid-season promotion in 2016. He has gone on to win 71 races and four drivers’ titles from 2021 to 2024, and came within two points of a fifth championship last year against a McLaren pairing with a faster car.

Red Bull have gone through senior departures over the past two years, including Christian Horner, Adrian Newey and Helmut Marko, and Verstappen’s long-standing race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase is set to join McLaren by the start of the 2028 season. Verstappen said none of that had shifted his own commitment.

“A few names have left but, at the same time, it’s still my family,” he said. “I never felt that desire or need to change to another team, to try and win somewhere else. If I feel well within the team here, why should I? Because I know that they do everything for me and they know that I do everything for them once I’m on the track and trying to get the results.”

The new deal takes him to 15 seasons as a senior Red Bull driver. Verstappen joked about the length of the commitment: “Practising for my own marriage! Just seeing how long I can eke that out in racing terms, and then try and triple that, at least, in marriage. I always said already, back in the day, when Dietrich [Mateschitz, team founder] was still alive, I said to him, my goal and target would be, of course, to race for Red Bull forever. So, we are on the good way.”

He would not be drawn on whether the new contract contains the same kind of break clauses as his previous one. “I mean, I’ve never disclosed anything in my contract,” he said. “So, yeah, that stays the same.”

Red Bull’s Faith in Their Man

Verstappen said of the extension: “I am really pleased with the contract extension. We have the best people and I’m excited to keep working together with everyone to get back to the top again. This remains the ultimate goal that all of us have been working towards and will continue to pursue. I want to thank Red Bull, Laurent and everyone at Oracle Red Bull Racing for the trust they put in me. I have always said it: the team is like a second family for me and I feel very at home. I came to the team hoping to be able to win races. What we went on to achieve together has been simply lovely and we have shared many incredible moments and won four World Championships.”

Team principal Laurent Mekies called it a defining moment for Red Bull. “Having Max continue with us and retaining the best driver on the grid is fantastic news for everyone at Red Bull, Oracle Red Bull Racing, as well as F1 and motorsport as a whole,” he said. “Very few partnerships in sport achieve what Max and this team have. Since the very beginning, Max has embodied everything that makes Oracle Red Bull Racing special: uncompromising competitiveness, relentless determination and the courage to challenge convention. His impact on our team and on Red Bull’s motorsport story has been transformational, and he has been fundamental to everything we have accomplished together.”

Mekies added: “But we are not done yet. There are more races to win, more milestones to achieve and more history to write. Together, we continue to raise the bar with the same determination that brought us to the top of the sport and an even greater faith in what we can achieve. Much will evolve as we move forward, but our ambition remains unchanged, united by one direction, one vision, one team.”

A Team Still Finding Its Feet

The extension comes in a season Red Bull started poorly, taking just four podiums in 11 races under the new rules before beginning to close the gap to the front. Verstappen is currently sixth in the Drivers’ Championship, 110 points behind Kimi Antonelli, as the season resumes at Zandvoort after the summer break.

His previous contract had included an exit clause that would have allowed him to join another team for 2027 had he been outside the top two positions in the standings at the start of the summer break, a threshold he did not clear. He has committed to Red Bull for another four and a half seasons regardless.

The news is expected to end speculation over driver changes at any of the sport’s current top four teams, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull, for 2027, with Verstappen instead turning his attention to a home crowd that will fill Zandvoort’s grandstands one final time this weekend.

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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