Juan Pablo Montoya: The arguments against Max Verstappen moving to McLaren

At the age of 17, Max Verstappen signed his first contract with Red Bull; shortly afterwards, he was behind the wheel of a Toro Rosso Formula 1 car (now known as Racing Bulls).

The rest is part of F1 history: a move to Red Bull Racing ahead of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, a sensational victory in Barcelona on his debut with RBR, four world championship titles (2021 to 2024) and 71 Grand Prix victories.

Max Verstappen has said on more than one occasion: “As far as I’m concerned, I can certainly imagine staying with Red Bull Racing until the end of my F1 career.” His current contract runs until the end of 2028.

Throughout the year, rumours have repeatedly surfaced suggesting that Verstappen is set to be lured away from RBR, or that Verstappen himself has lost confidence in the Milton Keynes-based team.

The situation in 2026: a generation of race cars he doesn’t enjoy driving, problems with reliability and speed, and only 7th place in the championship standings.

Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button: “If I were Max’s manager, I would naturally look around for an alternative.”

According to Radio Fahrerlager at Silverstone, that alternative is McLaren. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Verstappen will actually end up there.

Juan Pablo Montoya (50), who has competed in 94 Grand Prix races, points out on the NewBettingSites website: “There’s talk of a direct swap with Oscar Piastri and McLaren.”

“Aston Martin has also been mentioned. But if you were Max, would you really risk it? If you have a car that can get you onto the podium and is often the second or third best, why would you go to a team whose car doesn’t even make it into the top ten?”

“No, I really can’t imagine Max at Aston Martin. There’s no vacancy at Ferrari, and realistically speaking, not at Mercedes either.”

“So his only real chance to try something different is probably McLaren. But at the moment, you have to say that Red Bull Racing’s car is faster than the McLaren’s.”

“And would Max go to McLaren and want Lando as his team-mate? It wouldn’t be a question of speed, because Max is incredibly fast. But McLaren has, to a certain extent, been built around Lando. Max knows that.”

“Red Bull Racing is a place he knows, where everything is tailored to him. He’s simply fed up at the moment that things aren’t going his way, and I can understand that. When you’re driving your heart out and the wing fails to close in time again, just like in Austria, and you go off the track because of it – frustration is only natural.”

“I found it interesting to see how differently Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen reacted when something went wrong. Kimi lost a lot more at Silverstone than Max, but the Italian dealt with the problem with a fair bit of composure. Max, not so much.”