Max Verstappen’s future with Red Bull is anybody’s guess at the moment. The Dutch driver has been quite vocal when it comes to his dissatisfaction with where the team is right now.
So much so that it has become a regular occurrence for the driver’s future to continue to be a hot topic. At this stage, the driver’s exit clause is reportedly active, and what that means is that he can take a call on his future and move on from Red Bull at the end of the year.
After more than a decade of association, questions have been raised over the driver’s loyalty to the brand.
If we sift through some of the data from the 2026 F1 season, a worrying pattern emerges that could explain the driver’s hesitation to commit to the team.
Max Verstappen’s 2026 F1 season
#1 Points: 109 points
Least number of points by mid-season since 2018. The first half of the 2026 F1 season has been so bad that we have to go back almost a decade to see a comparable year in terms of points.
Just a reminder as well that 2018 was the year when Red Bull was still using Renault power units.
#2 Podiums: 4
We have to go back once again to the 2018 F1 season to compare the number of podiums that Max Verstappen has accrued this year. That was the year when Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were fighting for the title, while Red Bull was, at best, a supporting cast that was a step behind the top two teams.
#3 Wins: 0
We have to go back to the 2017 F1 season for the last time Max Verstappen went into the summer break with no wins to his name. In essence, we’re going back 10 years to the last time the driver was this unsuccessful during a season.
#4 Position: P6
The last time Max Verstappen was this low in the championship standings as the sport headed towards the summer break was in 2018. That was the last season of the Red Bull-Renault partnership, as the team was getting ready to move on to the Honda power unit.
The Worrying Pattern
For Max Verstappen, the worrying pattern here is that the numbers he’s putting up refer to an era when Red Bull was at least multiple years away from becoming a title-winning juggernaut. The team was struggling with the power unit and was severely limited.
In 2026, we’re looking at a team that is leaking resources, and you never hear of any new big-name signings joining the outfit.
Even though in 2018 the only major limitation was the power unit, that’s not the case right now, as there are a multitude of issues that have to be overcome.
This is precisely why a driver like Max Verstappen is just not willing to fully commit his future to Red Bull and continues to have serious doubts about the team’s future.
Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli