The recent discharge of Christian Horner as the head of the team and CEO of Red Bull Racing has turned upside down the world of Formula 1. The decision, announced on July 10, 2025, arrives after a tumultuous period for the team, which is fighting with disappointing performance and internal tensions. In the middle of this chaos, Helmut Marko, the influential director of Red Bull, made a tough statement on the future of the four -stroke world champion Max Verstappen. His words caused a warning reaction by Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, who was in contrast with Horner for some time. This development nourishes the speculation on the future of Max to Red Bull and the possible interest by rival teams as Mercedes.

Helmut Marko, a key figure in Verstappen’s career since he led him to Red Bull in 2016, recently spoke of the situation after Horner’s departure. In an interview withSprint carMarko stressed that Red Bull should provide a competitive car to preserve Verstappen, but added that Max cannot use the escape clauses in his contract at the moment, that he lasts until 2028. “He cannot simply leave”, Marko Stellig, in an attempt to try a transfer to Mercedes. This statement followed in a weekend full of speculations during the British Grand Prix, where Max reached a pole position, but the team has scored only ten points in the last two games. Marko’s trust in Red Bull’s ability to keep Verstappen seems based on the presence of a competitive base, with Max as “absolute number one” driver, but his tone also suggests the need to keep the situation under control.

Jos Verstappen, who never has a magazine, quickly responded to Marko’s words. In a declaration aGP33He warned that Red Bull should not blindly rely on contractual security. “If the Max team cannot give a car he can win, he will consider other options, regardless of what he is in his contract,” said Jos. He indicated the disappointing performance of the RB21, which in 2025 has difficulty competing with McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Jos’s warning derives from a long history of tensions with Horner, who, according to sources such asF1maximaal.nlFor a year and a half, the collisions had known with the Verstappen clan. A recent conversation after the qualification to Silverstone between Jos, Max and Horner, according to the witnesses, was far from friendly, who further presented the speculations on Horner’s resignation as an attempt to preserve Max.

Horner’s resignation, after twenty years at the helm of Red Bull, are widely seen as a turning point. The team, which still dominated in 2023, went down to fourth place in the manufacturers’ championship in 2024. Factors such as the departure of key figures such as Adrian Newey, an obsolete wind gallery and Horner’s attention on the Red Bull’s engines are mentioned as the causes of the decline. Laurent Mekies, previously boss of the Team of Racing Bulls, was appointed successor of Horner, but secondMotorsport.comHis appointment will not immediately solve the team’s structural problems. The car remains difficult to check and the updates in Austria and Silverstone did not produce the desired result. All this feeds the uncertainty about Verstappen’s future, especially now that Mercedes, led by Toto Wolff, is prepared to pay a flat -rate payment of $ 120 million to bring the maximum in 2026 or 2027.

For Red Bull, keeping Verstappen is crucial. Like a Red Bull insider, known as Dr. Obs, noticed on X, the team expected a “small relapse” after Horner’s loss and other key figures like Newey. Yet Max remains the cornerstone of their strategy, in particular with the new regulations of 2026. However, Jos Verstappen’s warning stresses that loyalty to Red Bull is not evident. Max himself indicated that he wanted to stay with Red Bull in 2026 to see who has the best car, but his manager, Raymond Vermeulen, continued to hit the resignation plain of Horner, which suggests that Max’s future is not yet fixed.

While Red Bull is preparing for a new cycle under Mekies, the question induces: can the team restore peace and performance to convince Verstappen? Marko’s hard statement and Jos’s warning response clarify that the battle for Max’s future is not only fought on the track, but also in Milton Keynes’ boarding rooms. The world of Formula 1 holds the breath for what it will bring in the coming months.