Verstappen receives request to stay at Red Bull until 2027 before joining Ferrari a year later

Whether Verstappen will still be active in Formula 1 in 2027 will become clear in the coming period. First, the engine manufacturers must still agree on a new division between the internal combustion engine and the battery. At the moment it’s 50/50, but the FIA, Mercedes, and Red Bull Ford want it to be 60/40. Ferrari and Audi, on the other hand, want to wait until 2028 to make adjustments.

Max Verstappen considers 60/40 the minimum ratio if he is to remain in the sport in ’27. If the change doesn’t happen, the former world champion says he will walk away from the sport. Although Verstappen made that clear last weekend in Montreal in no uncertain terms, Christijan Albers does not believe it will come to that. The former driver and Formula 1 team boss assumes that a solution will be found with the manufacturers in the near future.

Albers, now a TV analyst, can’t believe Verstappen will call it quits after this season. “If I had to advise him, I would say he shouldn’t stop, because then it would get very boring. He’d have to start doing other things all of a sudden; [series] where there isn’t much racing,” Albers says in De Telegraaf’s F1 podcast. The analyst admits he asked Verstappen for a favor.

Verstappen has won all his titles with Red Bull Racing. Other greats in the sport managed it with different teams, which they moulded to their liking. “I think he should take on a challenge like Michael Schumacher did. Because I think he has already become that big. I do believe he can make that difference [at Ferrari],” Albers believes.

In the 1990s, Michael Schumacher made the switch from the strong Benetton to the then-struggling Ferrari. At the time, the German was allowed to bring his own people with him to build a strong Ferrari together. After years of groundwork, the successes came and the Scuderia dominated the sport.

For Verstappen, it will be difficult to bring along a group of trusted confidants, as virtually everyone has already left Red Bull. Still, Albers recommends Verstappen move to the Italian team. “Did you see those red overalls when the three men were standing there after the race? What a difference in stature, and how beautiful is that. Those red overalls with the white stripes. That’s the most beautiful overall on the entire grid, isn’t it?”