Who could replace Max Verstappen at Red Bull? Plus: Why both parties might look elsewhere

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen said he was considering his F1 future after the Japanese GP back in March. Marcel van Dorst / EYE4IMAGES / NurPhoto via Getty Images Share articlePrime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic’s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason. Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today, we’re considering the curious case of Max Verstappen as we creep toward the season’s halfway mark (which is the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 26, assuming no canceled races get added back into the schedule). I’m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later. As I left the Miami Grand Prix last week, I was wondering if McLaren’s return to front-running form at Hard Rock Stadium meant it was truly back to its dominating form (spoiler, it might be track-specific). But perhaps I should’ve been wondering about the resurgence of Red Bull and Max Verstappen. After all, this dazzling combination looked really strong in Miami qualifying, before Verstappen threw that progress away with a poor start in the main race, which we went through in detail on Friday. And as much as I try to spend every waking second thinking about F1, there’s only so much pondering on grand prix racing to fit into a day (or newsletter). But now’s the time to think about Verstappen and Red Bull. After all, with F1 on another racing interlude before the Canadian GP next week, you’re going to be seeing the Dutchman’s name in the headlines plenty this week. Because much like our own Luke Smith, he’s on quite the racing side quest in May, as Verstappen will start the 2026 Nürburgring 24 Hours on Saturday. If Verstappen can join this club, it would be an impressive achievement. The race comes at an intriguing time, as Verstappen said he was considering his F1 future after the Japanese GP back in March. It’s not quite crunch time for committing to Red Bull in 2027, as Verstappen’s contract situation means he can only walk away from the team if he is outside the top two in the championship at a certain point in the season. This is most likely during the August summer break. But the news that broke last Friday about F1 decreasing the reliance on electrical engine energy (one of Verstappen’s biggest problems with the new cars) came at an important time. Verstappen called the engine energy systems tweaks introduced for the Miami race a “tickle” that “won’t change the world” in terms of how the 2026 cars feel behind the wheel. So now the question is: Do the hardware changes that will increase the importance of Internal Combustion power in F1 engines for 2027 and (hopefully) do away with off-putting elements such as super-clipping go far enough to convince Verstappen to stick around in F1 over the next few years? Verstappen’s media appearances at the sold-out Nürburgring race are set to be very limited, so we may have to wait at least one more week before the Montreal event kicks off to get his initial thoughts. But I can’t see how a (rare) fast intervention from F1 on rule changes doesn’t at least go a good portion of the way to ensuring Verstappen remains in grand prix racing for the foreseeable future. Whether he stays at Red Bull, well, is another matter … Verstappen was boosted back toward his grid-topping best in Miami by a series of Red Bull car upgrades. These included: But given how strong Mercedes remains — and it has its own upgrades to come in Montreal — Verstappen’s path to that critical second place in the drivers’ standings by the summer break still appears very difficult, even with a better Red Bull car. Right now, he’s 54 points back of George Russell’s second place in the standings, and 74 behind leader Kimi Antonelli. The Ferrari and McLaren drivers are all well-placed to race Verstappen, too. We’ll be getting into this properly in the coming weeks, but now seems like a good time to consider who Red Bull could possibly turn to if Verstappen does decide to leave the team: On Friday I also outlined just how poor Isack Hadjar was in Miami — seemingly continuing Red Bull’s run of promoted driving talent failing to produce for its top team. But there’s still time for Hadjar to turn this around.  And, if Verstappen were to walk, Hadjar would have an even greater chance of staying, as F1 teams are generally reluctant to make two driver changes at once since it risks having to get two newcomers up to speed over one offseason. But if Red Bull does lose its greatest-ever driver (only the marathon’s Sebastian Vettel can compete with Verstappen on title- and win-statistic terms) for 2027, it will most likely have to look outside its ever-shallower in-house driving talent pool for the first time since it hired Sergio Pérez to replace Albon for 2021. The 2026 French Formula 4 driver Autumn Fisher will be the wild-card entry for the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, F1 Academy announced today. The 18-year-old will represent Standard Charter — a banking and financial services company that is partnered with the all-women racing series. In 2024, F1 Academy introduced wild-card entries, where select drivers appear for one-off events, usually as a representative of the country the championship is racing in on the weekend in question. In this case, Fisher is Canadian. As championship managing director Susie Wolff put it in the news release, “the wild card initiative exists to give emerging talent the platform to step up.” And several drivers have advanced from being a wild-card entry to earning a full-time F1 Academy race seat. These include Ella Lloyd (who made her debut in Singapore 2024 and is now in her second season being supported by McLaren) and Alisha Palmowski (who appeared for the Qatar 2024 round and is supported by Red Bull). Fisher participated in last year’s F1 Academy rookie test, and finished 16th fastest out of 18 drivers in the afternoon session. She has also appeared in the British F4 championship in 2026. 🇳🇱 I said it would be a Verstappen-heavy week, which really began with Luke’s story on Ford revealing it spoke to the Dutchman about one day racing for its Hypercar team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ford will enter the top class of the World Endurance Championship in 2027. 🇩🇪 BMW won the WEC’s 6 Hours of Spa, which featured a characteristic rearguard masterclass from ex-F1 driver Kevin Magnussen to aid the path of his teammate Robin Frijns to victory. ‼️ Luke also analyzed the recent revelation that one of the canceled races in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia could be put back on the 2026 schedule. 🧐 And Antonelli has apparently had the best start to an F1 season since 2016, with his points total of 100 after four races matching Nico Rosberg at the same point a decade ago. Antonelli only has 100 points because of his sprint race points accrued so far in 2026, whereas Rosberg won four straight races, which — to me — makes the comparison entirely worthless. 📫 Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms