Guenther Steiner Leaks Max Verstappen’s 3-Team Shortlist and Red Bull Should Panic

The whole “Max Verstappen will use his exit clause” drama has been going on for a while now, and for good reasons. The RB22 is riddled with flaws. You name it, and Red Bull Racing has got it. Chassis struggle? Check. Powertrain reliability issue? Check. When you bundle all of this up, it’s natural why Max Verstappen cannot handle this anymore. While the Dutchman was sealed in till 2028, it looks like Red Bull’s gotta focus on finding a replacement real soon.

You see, the F1 paddock rumors are finally getting real. Because Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner just dropped a massive update about the Dutchman’s future. Narrowing down to just 3 teams that have the biggest shot at poaching the world champ.

3-Team Chase for the Dutchman

“In my opinion, Max can only go to 3 teams: Ferrari, McLaren, or Mercedes,” Steiner had explained. But there is a small catch here. See, out of the 3 teams, only one has the actual chance of taking up Verstappen. And we’ll explain why.

Toto Wolff has been trying to get him to Mercedes for months. But that talk has really quieted down lately. And for obvious reasons. When you already have a 19-year-old phenom in your car’s driver’s seat, would you really wanna pay a massive buyout fee for the Dutchman? You could say that Kimi Antonelli sweeping back-to-back races and taking the Silver Arrows to the top has kind of influenced the whole Verstappen to Mercedes narrative.

Then there comes Ferrari. The Tifosi are already sitting with a seven-time world champion. Plus, we’d like to think that Ferrari’s primary objective should be fixing the “super clipping” issues going on with the SF-26. Instead of chasing a different driver.