At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff confirmed that George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli will remain the team’s driver pair next season.
“Max remains the benchmark among drivers, but we may no longer be in the immediate urgency of recruiting a driver of his calibre,” Wolff said in Budapest.
Verstappen finished second on Sunday, 15 seconds behind race winner Lando Norris, with Antonelli third to extend his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton to 50 points.
The exit clause has been live for weeks
Verstappen’s Red Bull contract runs through 2028, but a performance clause allowed him to leave for 2027 if he was outside the top two at the summer break.
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His British Grand Prix DNF made that condition mathematically certain three weeks ago. The 28-year-old sits sixth in the championship on 109 points and has until October to formally activate the clause.
€50m a year wasn’t the problem, the three-year length was
Talks with Wolff had gone further than either side let on. Italian outlet Motorsport.it, as reported by GPFans, said Verstappen was willing to accept €50m per season, a sharp cut from his current €62m Red Bull base, but wanted a three-year deal.
Mercedes, which has kept Russell and Antonelli on short-term contracts, refused the length.
Wolff has not slammed the door for good.
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“We’re not afraid of potentially having both of them in the team at some point,” he said of Antonelli and Verstappen.
“Adding another variable now is not, in my opinion, the right thing for our long-term development.”
Piastri’s one-word answer keeps blocking the obvious move
That leaves McLaren as the only top team that could plausibly accommodate Verstappen, and only if it wants to.
Both Norris and Oscar Piastri are contracted at Woking through 2028, and Piastri has publicly refused to move.
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Asked directly whether he would drive for McLaren in 2027, Piastri gave a one-word answer:
“Yes.”
He then framed the speculation as familiar terrain.
“Clearly Max is feeling maybe not in a great position at the moment or exploring options. It was the same thing last year with him and Mercedes so this is nothing new.”
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Team CEO Zak Brown and principal Andrea Stella have backed the pair publicly, and Piastri said their reassurances have been direct:
“Zak and Andrea have been great through that, all very reassuring.”
Red Bull is betting he stays
Red Bull’s leadership does not appear ready to lose him. Red Bull executive Oliver Mintzlaff reportedly believes Verstappen has no realistic alternative, an argument that grows sharper if McLaren refuses to break its own lineup.
Ferrari, as GPblog noted, is locked in with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton through 2027.
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F1 now enters its three-week summer break before the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on 23 August. Verstappen’s home race would be an unusually loud setting for a driver who has said nothing publicly about which way he intends to jump.
