'Verstappen extends his Formula 1 stay, remaining active in the sport beyond 2028'

GPblog was the first to ask Helmut Marko about it last week, but the Austrian firmly kept his distance. In a recent interview, the former Red Bull Racing advisor had no interest whatsoever. Explaining why he had been in the Netherlands? Marko called it “a private meeting.” Nor did he want to say anything about Max Verstappen’s future at Red Bull Racing.

Marko now appears a bit more open, as he suddenly does address Verstappen’s possible future in the Austrian newspaper Krone: “Look, the most important thing is to give Max a competitive car. Like in Monaco or Austria. At Silverstone, they were a long way off again. We just need to become consistent again,” said Marko, who, notably, speaks in the first-person plural.

The Austrian seems to be making an appeal to Verstappen: “Real racing with a V8 engine should begin in 2030/31, and Max needs to hold out until then,” is his advice. Marko also knows that Verstappen has a clause allowing him to leave Red Bull regardless. But the ex-advisor isn’t worried about that: “Every contract contains such clauses, but you can also talk about those deadlines.”

It’s well known that Max Verstappen doesn’t want to stay in Formula 1 until he’s forty. The Dutchman also wants to race in other categories, especially after getting a taste of GT racing at the Nürburgring. Still, Marko does not expect Verstappen to fully swap Formula 1 for an adventure in another class: “All the money is in Formula 1. That’s why I assume we’ll still see Max in the pinnacle of motorsport even after his Red Bull contract ends in 2028.”