Max Verstappen’s private jet was tracked making an unscheduled stop at Salzburg on Tuesday, in the middle of a family summer break the Red Bull driver has spent between Monaco and Sardinia.
The aircraft flew from its home base in Nice to Sardinia, where Verstappen’s yacht “Unleash the Lion” is docked, then continued on to Austria. Salzburg is home to Red Bull’s headquarters.
The detour lasted just long enough for a brief visit before the jet turned around and headed back to the Mediterranean the same evening, according to Flightradar24 data reported by GPBlog. GPBlog understands Verstappen himself was not on board.
Piquet had spent the previous days posting to Instagram from Monaco, where the family celebrated her daughter Penelope’s seventh birthday with Verstappen and their younger daughter Lily. The publicly visible version of Verstappen’s summer was roller skates and beach photos. The flight-tracking version pointed to Austria.
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A new offer, without the clause
The Salzburg stopover comes as speculation continues over Verstappen’s future. Bild reports that Red Bull is preparing a contract extension for Verstappen running through the end of 2029, with a pay rise on top of his current basic salary of around €65 million a year, and with the crucial change that his existing exit clause is removed.
The offer has been with his management and the driver has neither accepted nor rejected it.
That clause is why every jet movement matters. Verstappen’s existing deal runs to 2028 but lets him walk if he is outside the top two of the drivers’ championship at the summer break.
After the British Grand Prix he officially fell out of that position, and he currently sits sixth. He has until October to trigger the walkaway.
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Verstappen already visited Salzburg in person in June, for a meeting with his manager Raymond Vermeulen and Red Bull executives Mark Mateschitz, Oliver Mintzlaff and Chalerm Yoovidhya. What was discussed was never disclosed.
Red Bull “extremely irritated”
Red Bull’s leadership is not enjoying the wait. Dutch newspaper De Limburger, in reporting cited by Yahoo Sports, says shareholders and top management are “extremely irritated that Verstappen is putting them on hold yet again”, having expected some gratitude after he earned “hundreds of millions” wearing their colors.
Verstappen held talks with Mercedes in 2024 and 2025 and did not move.
This week GPBlog reported that Verstappen and Toto Wolff were pictured together on holiday for the second year in a row.
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Manager Vermeulen has publicly reaffirmed that his driver remains loyal to Red Bull. Verstappen himself has said nothing about the contract.
The deadline to trigger the exit clause runs out in October. Red Bull is waiting for an answer it thought it already had.
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