Reigning Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has confirmed that he will drive for Red Bull Racing in the 2026 season after heavy speculation of a potential move to rivals Mercedes, Afrosport reports.
Despite having a contract in place until 2028, the Dutch driver has been rumoured to be of interest to Mercedes since last year when Lewis Hamilton announced his depature for Ferrari in 2025.
He was also linked with a mega-money move to Aston Martin to reunite with former Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey and a continuation of the engine relationship with Honda that earned him his four consecutive world championships.
Despite Red Bull’s decline as the fastest car on the grid since last year, Verstappen has opted to continue with the energy drink-run team ahead of new engine regulations taking shape 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 ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
“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.”
Max Verstappen confirms he’s staying at Red Bull next season 👀#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/6ToNBPw4Tq
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2025
Verstappen has only won two out of 13 races this year, while the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri (six wins) and Lando Norris (four wins) have shared 10 wins and George Russell one, leaving him [Verstappen] third in the standings, 81 points behind Piastri.
