Red Bull admits Max Verstappen’s exit is “dangerous” by claiming “He will consider it”.

Helmut Marko admits there is a “danger” that Max Verstappen could leave Red Bull and reckons he will “consider” doing so without a winning car.

Verstappen moved up to the F1 World Championship in 2021 and began a prolonged period of dominance from there, strolling to the 2022 and 2023 F1 crowns with Red Bull as the team and driver mastered the new ground effect era. However, these dominant days are over.

Red Bull senses the “danger” of Max Verstappen leaving

Verstappen has now gone winless in his last eight grands prix, with McLaren emerging as a strong threat. The Woking outfit has usurped Red Bull at the top of the 2024 F1 Constructors’ Championship, building a 41-point lead, while Lando Norris has reduced Verstappen’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 52 points.

Verstappen’s Red Bull contract runs until the end of 2028, but that hasn’t stopped speculation about his future with the team. Both Mercedes and Aston Martin frequently crop up as potential suitors, while Verstappen has once again hinted at an imminent F1 entry after retiring amid his punitive dispute with the FIA.

And Marko, Red Bull’s senior adviser, did not deny that there are mechanisms in place for Verstappen to get out of his contract. Marko expects to consider this option unless Red Bull puts him back in a race winning position.

Last time out at the Singapore Grand Prix, Norris delivered his most dominant Formula 1 performance to date, banishing his starting demons from pole and winning by 21 seconds over Verstappen.

“The danger is there,” said Marko in an interview with RTL/ntv and Sport.de about a possible departure from Verstappen Red Bull.

“Max is not the guy who will break the records of (Michael) Schumacher or (Lewis) Hamilton. When he’s in the car, he wants to win. But the environment has to be right. If he doesn’t like the whole thing anymore, you can expect him to say from one day to the next: That’s it!

“Most top drivers have exit clauses that are performance-based. Max has one too. This means that if we cannot provide him with a car in which he can ride up front, he will certainly consider it.”

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However, Red Bull have been given a potential boost when it comes to keeping Verstappen, as as if he wanted to get out and continue with a rival team in Formula 1, the door at Mercedes now appears to have been closed.

Team boss Toto Wolff has been vocal about wanting to lure Verstappen to Mercedes, but after teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli was promoted to partner George Russell from F1 2025, Wolff is ready to leave Verstappen.

“We’re sitting back,” he told Motorsport.com.

“I think I’ve expressed it before, and from Max’s side we also have a similar view: you have to have trust in your drivers or in your team. You must give it the utmost support to make it a success. And only when something goes really wrong will you consider other options.

“For me, it’s like flirting outside while the relationship is working. It’s not working, I don’t flirt outside.

“I would only seek conversation if I wanted a change or was thinking about a change. And it’s the same on his side. I think our values ​​are pretty much the same.”

A possible Red Bull contingency plan had emerged when team boss Christian Horner claimed that Russell was on the F1 2026 radar, but Marko dismissed this.

Read more: George Russell to Red Bull? Helmut Marko reacts to Christian Horner’s contract claim