'Verstappen must leave Red Bull’s sinking ship as soon as possible'

Ever since the start of 2024, things have been turbulent at Red Bull Racing and it has never really settled down. Since the Christian Horner case, it’s been restless, top people have been leaving, and performance has declined. The dismissal of Christian Horner and the appointment of Laurent Mekies have not helped so far either.

Midway through 2025, it finally seemed to be calming down within Red Bull Racing. With Horner’s dismissal, Team Verstappen was kept satisfied and the team retained its most important asset. With Mekies, a team principal was appointed to steer the outfit back in the right direction after a historic slump.

At the beginning of 2024, Red Bull still had a gigantic lead over the competition. Partly due to the internal unrest, however, the whole thing completely collapsed. Verstappen still became world champion in 2024, but that was more thanks to Verstappen than to Red Bull.

In 2025 that downward trend continued, until the arrival of Mekies. The Frenchman proved capable of turning the tide. Red Bull started winning races again and Verstappen almost became world champion once more. It should be noted, however, that all rivals had long since shifted their focus to 2026.

Early in 2026, the first alarm bells rang when chief designer Craig Skinner suddenly decided to leave. Yet another leading figure walking out at Red Bull Racing, while several engineers also left Verstappen’s garage. Only GP remained loyal to Verstappen. Until now.

The next blow is that Lambiase is also leaving Red Bull Racing. Perhaps Verstappen’s most important confidant. The man about whom Verstappen once said that if he stopped, Max would stop too. Now that Lambiase is moving to McLaren, what happens? Will Verstappen quit or make the switch as well?

Lambiase won’t be the main reason for Verstappen to leave. But it is yet another sign that Verstappen will have to go. Red Bull is a sinking ship you need to jump off quickly while there are still other ships nearby.

It’s the sum of all parts that is most worrying. So many people have already left, and how many top figures have been brought in to replace them? Doubts are growing about the abilities of technical director Pierre Waché, and he is the only one left from the old guard. Meanwhile, the track showed how good Waché’s direction was. With the new updates on the car, Verstappen was beaten in qualifying in Japan by Isack Hadjar, who had no updates.

Since the beginning of 2024, Red Bull Racing has been on a downward trend. Never before has a team collapsed so dramatically from an apparently untouchable position. Everyone thought Red Bull would sweep all the championships under the new regulations, but internal unrest led to a complete implosion. That implosion has not been stopped by the arrival of Mekies, aside from a brief uptick in 2025. In fact, it’s only getting worse. It’s time for Max to leave.