Verstappen: Why is the risk of not being a champion again?
Despite being the best F1 pilot, Max Verstappen could keep four F1 championships in his career. Because?
Max Verstappen The 2025 season began Formula 1 with the desire to join the Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio with five pilot titles in the highest category and break the draw of four with Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettelbut with a little more than half of the elapsed campaign already analyzes whether another championship will win.
With only 27 years, the Dutchman obtained his fourth consecutive crown in 2024 and seemed that he could aspire to the record of seven that share the German Michael Schumacher and the British Lewis Hamiltonbut the situation has changed on the grill and prepares to be dethroned.
The member of Red Bullwhich is third in the classification behind the two members of McLarenhe is aware that this time he will not be able to repeat and the future is not encouraging – despite the victory in Monza – with the arrival of a new competition regulation for 2026 that threatens to modify the status quo.
Despite the talent, his experience and still being young, the Netherlands pilot could park in those four conquests and never celebrate again, because in the short term the situation does not favor it and he has said that he would not like to have a long trajectory, so he has time against.
The capitulation of 2025
From the second half of the previous calendar, McLaren emerged as the best car in the serial, although its star driver Lando Norris He was unable to cut the distance to Verstappen, who obtained his fourth consecutive scepter, but Red Bull no longer repeated in the builders.
The rhythm remained for this 2025 and the Woking squad has dominated with authority, so the throne in December will be occupied by Norris or his partner, the Australian Oscar Piastriwho marches as a leader to the final stretch, with 94 units away from Max.
The growth of McLaren has coincided with the fall in the performance of the car of energy drinks, which has lost speed in the closure of society with the Honda engines and that on the road also ran out of key pieces, such as the designer Adrian Newey or the same director of the team, Christian Horner only a few weeks ago.
All these problems have caused that Verstappen no longer has a vehicle to fight with the papaya color and must settle for rescuing some victory – as in monza – or podium in specific conditions, in addition to opting for reverse strategies to try to reduce distance.
Verstappen has been the only rival of Woking, but it has not been enough to defend his reign and will have to return to the disenchantment of 2020, when he was third in the table, behind the two Mercedes, who at that time sent.
The unknown of 2026
After the speculation about a possible departure from Red Bull, Verstappen confirmed in the Hungary Grand Prix that will stay in the brand that has supported it since it began to make a name in the motor sport, which gave it a F1 car with Toro Rosso in 2015 (at 17) and amounted to it to the first team of the company in 2016.
Therefore, the tetracampeón will continue in the same garage, although it will do so in a different environment, already without several of the names that led to the blue machine back to the top, after the first time of successes that it had between 2010 and 2013, and although its capacity is not in doubt, its upcoming results are a mystery.
Because the serial rules will have a great change, which causes all factories to start from zero by 2026, including Cadillac, which will be released in the next season such as Escudería 11, and Red Bull, which today has the fourth best car on the tracks, could improve or fall even more.
Above all, because the company chose to build its own engine for that date, after Honda announced that it would leave Formula 1 in 2021, after the first Verstappen title, although it remained as manufacturer of the power unit so far and then reversed its plan and will continue in the circuits in 2026, now with Aston Martin.
However, after Honda’s announcement, Red Bull did not want to find a new partner and launched himself for the ambitious project to build his own power plants under the new statute, which will be completed in a few months, but the performance of that vital piece will be an unknown with respect to the rest, which has the advantage of the experience in the category.
The continuity of 2027
What happens in 2026 will be a parameter for the following campaigns, because after the great regulatory revolution, the situation will be stabilized in F1, without great modifications for 2027 or 2028, so the squad that has best understood the new standards could extend its domain in the short term.
It will be the big doubt for Verstappen, who will have to wait to know where Red Bull is located, if it is competitive and fights regularly by the triumphs, despite having a debutant engine, if it has a margin of growth to reduce the distance soon or if it is far from the top and in each event it struggles to enter the top 10 or the Q3.
There will come the reflection of Max, which will fulfill 30 in September of that 2027 and does not seem to have the character to settle for a car that does not give it the possibilities of being crowned again, so it will not be in the half table and could fulfill its promise to retire young or break with the colors that led him to the elite.
The doubts of other teams
After analyzing the 2026 and seeing how each participant in the classification is, Verstappen could choose to get out of their contract (which expires in 2028) and find a new site to fight again for the titles, no matter where, as Toto Wolff, director of Mercedes, director of Mercedes, would give any seat to the one in the Netherlands if available.
Precisely the silver arrows have emerged as their next destination because none of its pilots (George Russell and Kimi Antonelli) is signed for after December and although its permanence by 2026 seems safe, it would not extend beyond; That would give Max a seat in a construction team, which dominated between 2014 and 2021, although like the rest, it is an unknown with the following regulation.
Another option would be Aston Martin for the presence of Newey, the arrival of Honda as a motor provider, with which Verstappen lived its time of glory and, above all, the construction of an ambitious project, which includes facilities and large signings in the departments of engineering and mechanics, although it could be in the same situation as Red Bull in 2027.
The last squad to which the tetra -champion referred to Ferrari, which wants to reopen some showcases that have not have a driver trophy since 2007 and a collective one since 2008, despite being the most successful factory in history and having a good duo of flyers, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, insured only until 2026; The risk for Max when arriving in Maranello is to repeat the story of Vettel and not win again.
It is the current panorama for the future of a generational talent, which broke into the highest category and that at 27 already presumed four crowns, but that might not get any again, before the unknown that will be Formula 1 in the coming years and the will of Verstappen of retiring young, only remains for knowing if as the Vettel mirror or as the modern fangio.
