Max Verstappen has never been one for diplomacy, and he is not starting now. The Verstappen McLaren talks that hung over Formula 1’s summer resurface in a notably blunt BBC Sport interview published on Wednesday, in which the four-time world champion writes off his own 2026 campaign and demands wholesale change at Red Bull.
What the Verstappen McLaren talks mean for 2027
Speaking on the eve of last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen was asked where his head was after a season that has brought five podiums but no wins. “Of course it’s not where I want to be, but as a team we’re trying to just learn and understand a lot of things for next year,” he said. “We are not in a title fight. We are just trying to find more performance.”
The verdict on the RB22 was equally unsparing. “Changes need to happen to the car for next year,” Verstappen said. “We will not be able to change that for this year, but we just need to try and get a lot of learnings to do better next year.”
That matters because the two-year extension he signed before the summer break, running in theory to the end of 2030, retains performance clauses — the same mechanism that kept McLaren, and briefly Mercedes, in the conversation. Verstappen used the interview to address those approaches directly, alongside his views on the new hybrid power units and his cameo at May’s Nurburgring 24 Hours.
Red Bull arrive at the Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s new Madring this weekend still winless in 2026, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli leading the drivers’ championship after victory at Monza. Verstappen’s contract to 2030 may have settled the paperwork; on this evidence, it has settled very little else.
