- The Max Verstappen exit clause will almost certainly activate before the Hungarian Grand Prix.
- Red Bull’s ownership is divided over spending millions to keep their champion.
- Verstappen reportedly rejected a contract extension to 2032, asking Red Bull to wait.
Red Bull’s top ownership flew into Salzburg before the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with one goal in mind: keep Max Verstappen. The four-time world champion holds an exit clause in his contract that is now almost certain to activate.
According to reports, the team is spending significant resources, and revealing significant internal divisions, trying to stop him from using it.
The Salzburg summit and Red Bull’s multi-million euro gamble
The meeting brought together Red Bull GmbH co-owners Mark Mateschitz and Chalerm Yoovidhya, CEO Oliver Mintzlaff and Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies.
Verstappen attended alongside his manager, Raymond Vermeulen. Yoovidhya’s presence alone signalled the seriousness of the situation. The Thai billionaire, Red Bull’s largest shareholder, rarely leaves Dubai.
The exit clause Verstappen’s camp negotiated into his 2022 contract is tied to his position in the Drivers’ Championship around the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July.
If he sits outside the top two at that point, he earns the right to walk away. Verstappen currently sits seventh in the standings, 101 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli and 60 behind second-placed Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull privately accepts the clause will activate.
German outlet Bild reported that the window for Verstappen to invoke the clause actually extends to October. That means Red Bull could be searching for a replacement deep into the second half of the season.
To prevent that, Red Bull considered offering a low double-digit million euro payment to eliminate the clause entirely. But the proposal has exposed a rift inside the boardroom.
Yoovidhya favours the buyout. Mateschitz and Mintzlaff do not. Mintzlaff reportedly believes Max Verstappen has few realistic alternatives and that buying out the clause is unnecessary spending.
Red Bull went further still. Former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, speaking on Sky Deutschland’s Backstage Boxengasse podcast, said the team offered Verstappen a contract extension running to 2032.
Verstappen turned it down. Schumacher quoted him as saying, “I don’t need that right now. I have a contract until 2028 anyway. I want to wait and see.”
When PlanetF1.com asked Verstappen what he needed to see from Red Bull before July, he offered nothing. “If there is anything new about what I’m doing, I will let you know,” he said.
Loyalty is on the table, but so is the desire to win
Vermeulen laid out the team’s position plainly in an interview with Bild. “We have a contract until 2028,” he said. “Of course, there are exit clauses; there always have been. But we’ve never exercised one.”
He added that Verstappen wants to finish his career at Red Bull, but only if the team gives him a genuine chance to compete for championships.
That condition is where Red Bull’s problem lives. The RB22 has struggled through the early part of the 2026 season. The FIA has ruled Red Bull’s internal combustion engine is the strongest on the grid, but the chassis trails both Mercedes and Ferrari.
In Barcelona, Verstappen finished fourth despite recent improvements to the car. Red Bull is targeting a significant upgrade package for the Austrian Grand Prix, but its impact on the competitive order remains unclear.
Schumacher said on his podcast that Red Bull is already preparing contingency plans. He claimed Mateschitz has held discussions with Mark Webber, Oscar Piastri’s manager and a former Red Bull driver, suggesting Piastri is the name being quietly considered as a replacement.
Verstappen has made little secret of his frustration with the 2026 regulations. ESPN previously reported that he is on the “precipice” of retirement, though he has not made a final decision.
His racing interests now stretch beyond Formula 1. He runs a GT programme in partnership with Mercedes, and discussions are reportedly under way about moving that to a Ford-backed effort.
A Mustang campaign at the Nürburgring is being explored, with Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring potentially to follow under a Ford Hypercar programme.
Vermeulen indicated a decision could come before the summer break. “We want the decision made soon so everyone knows where they stand,” he said via PlanetF1.
Red Bull can offer Verstappen money. It can extend his contract on paper and fly its shareholders across continents for a meeting. What it cannot manufacture is a car fast enough to satisfy the one condition that actually matters to him.
The Austrian Grand Prix upgrade and the weeks that follow it will tell Verstappen more than any offer across a boardroom table could.
