Albers is not the pundit anyone expected to sound the warning bell.

The former Minardi and Spyker driver has spent much of the last decade defending Verstappen in the Dutch media, often against foreign critics. His caveat, given to De Telegraaf and picked up across the paddock, therefore lands differently.

“There are many positive sides to Max, but there are also negative sides to Max,” Albers said, as quoted by PlanetF1.

His concern is the tone Verstappen has taken with his own team during Red Bull’s worst season in years.

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The 21 other drivers

Red Bull’s 2026 campaign has been shaped by the new technical regulations and the team’s first year running its own power unit. Verstappen sits sixth in the drivers’ standings on 109 points, 110 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli after the Hungarian Grand Prix.

That has produced a run of blunt public verdicts from Verstappen on the car and its development direction. Albers thinks the frustration has tipped into something less useful.

“I think he is so focused on himself in that respect that he no longer realises those other 21 drivers also want to win and become world champion,” Albers told the Dutch paper.

He also brought Adrian Newey, who left Red Bull last year, into the argument to underline the scale of the task Verstappen is demanding of Milton Keynes.

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“You can see it with Adrian Newey too. You cannot simply create a basic package from nothing,” Albers said.

The exit clause is already in play

The timing matters. Verstappen races in front of a Dutch grandstand on 23 August, with lights out at 3pm local time. His contract with Red Bull runs to 2028, but includes a performance clause that opens an exit route if he is outside the top two of the drivers’ championship at the summer break.

That threshold has already been crossed. GPFans reported on 6 July that a top-two finish was mathematically out of reach after his British Grand Prix retirement, meaning the clause is now live. Verstappen has until October to decide whether to trigger it.

Albers, for his part, is not saying Verstappen is wrong to be frustrated.

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“I can understand that you become frustrated if they are not moving in the direction you have in mind,” he said.

His point is that of roughly 1,000 people at the Red Bull factory, around 700 are already pulling in the direction Verstappen wants, and that the running commentary from the cockpit is not helping any of them.

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