- Leclerc been warned: moving to Red Bull would mean joining team in freefall.
- Verstappen qualified 11th in Japan and is considering walking away from F1.
- Ferrari abandoned their 2025 car mid-season. Now second in the constructors’.
Former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has warned Charles Leclerc against joining Red Bull Racing, even if Max Verstappen activates his contract exit clause later this year.
Speaking on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Schumacher said the Milton Keynes team is in no shape to attract a driver of Leclerc’s calibre right now. “Red Bull in its current situation is not really an option,” he said. “This is now a long-term project again.”
The warning arrives at a moment when Formula 1’s 2026 season has already upended the order that defined the sport for the past four years.
The Verstappen question
Verstappen is unhappy. After qualifying 11th at the Japanese Grand Prix, he admitted he needed to figure out “life here” in the paddock.
The new regulations, which split engine power near equally between combustion and electric sources, have done little to lift his mood. He has described the cars as feeling “a bit more like Formula E on steroids.”
His contract gives him a way out. An exit clause, first reported by ESPN, allows him to leave Red Bull if he sits outside the top two in the championship at a set point between August and October.
Verstappen pushed for that clause when he re-signed in early 2022, already wary of where the new rules were heading. That caution now looks justified.
Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies has tried to stay calm. “We are having zero discussions about those aspects,” he said, adding that a faster car would bring a happier Verstappen.
But faster is not something Red Bull can promise quickly.
A team coming apart at the seams
Red Bull entered 2026 carrying wounds that go beyond Verstappen’s frustration.
Their energy recovery system loses ground through high-speed corners, forcing both drivers to lift earlier than rivals just to remain competitive on the straights.
Verstappen’s sixth-place finish in Australia was their best result of the season. Twelve points from three races is their lowest haul since 2015.
The personnel losses have hurt just as much as the technical ones. Adrian Newey left. Christian Horner left. Jonathan Wheatley followed.
And now Gianpiero Lambiase, the engineer who stood beside Verstappen from the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix onward, is heading to McLaren, where he will serve as Chief Racing Officer by 2028.
Schumacher did not spare the team in his assessment.
“The team at the moment is a bit all over the place, things are a bit chaotic,” he said via GPBlog. “There is no proper communication to the outside. Helmut Marko as a figure is also missing there, to give some kind of guideline, in my opinion.”
For a team built on precision and discipline, that is a damning portrait.
Why Ferrari makes more sense for Charles Leclerc
Schumacher’s argument was not just about Red Bull’s troubles. It was also about Ferrari’s timing. He questioned why Leclerc would walk away from a team “that is now just starting to work.”
He added that he could not imagine Ferrari would seriously entertain losing him either. “That would be quite unwise,” he said.
The championship standings tell the story plainly. Leclerc sits third in the drivers’ standings with 49 points. Ferrari is second in the constructors’ championship. Verstappen, by contrast, is ninth with just 12 points.
Ferrari earned that position through sacrifice. Early in 2025, the team stopped developing their car mid-season and threw their resources entirely at the 2026 regulations.
Leclerc called it a “no-brainer” once it became clear they could not fight for that year’s title.
The gamble has paid off. Their power unit and the overall aerodynamics package are among the more effective ones under the new rules, delivering energy and stability when the car needs it most.
Schumacher also pointed to the longer picture. With Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari and time working against him, the team will eventually need to rebuild around a younger driver.
Leclerc is that driver. Leaving now, Schumacher implied, would be giving away a seat at the table just as the food arrives.
The story the numbers tell
Three years ago, Red Bull felt invincible. Verstappen won four consecutive world championships. Their car was the benchmark. Their pit wall ran like a machine. That version of the team no longer exists.
Ferrari, for so long the romantic underdog, has done something its rivals have not: planned properly for a new era, and arrived ready.
Leclerc is at the wheel, in form, and accumulating points while Verstappen works out whether he still wants to be here.
Schumacher’s advice is blunt, but it holds. For Leclerc, the move that looks bold would actually be a step backwards. The smarter road, for now, runs through Maranello.
