Max Verstappen would be allowed to leave Red Bull amid uncertain future speculations

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner recently revealed that Max Verstappen would be allowed to leave the team before the end of his current contract should the situation arise and will not be forced to stay.

Verstappen currently has a contract with the team till the 2028 season. While he might find no reason to leave Red Bull given their domination over the rest of the grid, there have been speculations of a move involving the Dutchman.

The rumors stem from the news around Christian Horner who was accused of inappropriate behavior by an employee earlier in February. An internal investigation cleared him of the charges but it has created turmoil within the team.

Jos Verstappen, Max's father, has been open about how the situation might damage the team. This led to speculations that the Dutchman might leave the team before the end of his contract.

Speaking about the same, Horner stated that Red Bull will not force Verstappen to stay in case he wants to break away from the team prior to the end of his contract. He told the media including Sportskeeda:

"It's like anything in life: you can't force somebody to be somewhere just because of a piece of paper," Horner said.

"If somebody didn't want to be at this team, then we're not going to force somebody, against their will, to be here. That applies whether it's a machine operator, or a designer, or somebody in one of the support functions that runs through the business."

However, he believes that Max Verstappen continues to be passionate about the team.

"Being involved in a team like this involves commitment and passion. Max has that. We've seen that, he's been here since he was 18 years of age."

"I have no doubt of his commitment and passion going forward."

Verstappen has won three consecutive world championships since 2021 with the Austrian team and continues to lead the championship in the current F1 season.

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Toto Wolff would 'love to' have Max Verstappen at Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton will be leaving Mercedes at the end of this season and race for Ferrari 2025 onwards, replacing Carlos Sainz. While this move has been labeled one of the biggest in the history of F1, Mercedes has not yet revealed the Briton's replacement.

With the current situation around Max Verstappen and Red Bull, Toto Wolff was asked if he would like to have him race for Mercedes. Wolff stated that while he would love to have Verstappen, his priority remains on improving their car.

"I’d love to have him [Max Verstappen]," F1 quoted him.

"But first we need to sort out our car. I think we owe it to our drivers, George [Russell] and Lewis, to improve the car and give them equipment that is good before dreaming about the future next year."

Mercedes' struggles with the car continue with the W15 as well, the F1 challenger that was supposed to be a major improvement on the previous car. Post the Saudi Arabian GP, Toto Wolff revealed there was something "fundamentally" wrong with the car.

Mercedes currently sits in fourth place in the championship standings.