Verstappen Commits to Red Bull Until 2030 but Admits 2026 Is a Lost Season
Max Verstappen has signed a two-year contract extension with Red Bull that keeps him at the team through the end of 2030 — and then, on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, told BBC Sport that his team is nowhere near a title fight this year and is already focused on learning for next season.
The extension, announced on 20 August 2026, came with the startling admission that Verstappen had not yet won a single race in the 2026 Formula 1 season at the time of the deal. Sources told ESPN the new contract could be worth around $110 million a year including bonuses, nearly double his previous estimated $60 million. Reuters and the Associated Press both reported the news; Red Bull Racing confirmed it on its own website.
The deal itself is not unconditional. Verstappen's previous contract, which ran to the end of 2028, was understood to include performance-based break clauses — escape hatches that let a driver leave if the car fails to meet certain competitive targets. The new extension to 2030 still contains similar performance clauses, according to his BBC Sport interview. In other words, the commitment is real, but so is the exit ramp.
For fans, that tension is the story. This is a four-time world champion who earlier in the year said he was "not enjoying" the sport and was considering leaving at the end of the season because of unhappiness with the new rules — the sweeping engine and aerodynamic regulations that reshaped Formula 1 for 2026. Back in March, Verstappen told BBC Sport he was unhappy with the changes. By late August, after signing the extension, he said he was "closer to retiring" from F1 than to changing teams, per BBC Sport. Now, speaking at Monza, he has made the commitment while being blunt about why the car is not working.
Verstappen said his Red Bull lacks outright performance and that its through-corner balance — how the car behaves from the moment a driver turns in, through the middle of the corner, to the point they get back on the power — is "too hit and miss" between entry, mid-corner and exit. That inconsistency makes it difficult to set up the car with confidence and is a core reason the team has slipped off the pace. He also acknowledged that key personnel have departed and new faces have arrived, and that the team is openly discussing "possible changes or a different philosophy" in how it designs the car.
Yet Verstappen signed anyway. He told BBC Sport the team feels like a second family and that he simply feels good there. He is also involved in non-Formula 1 projects next year in which Red Bull is a partner — and he made a surprise appearance at the Nürburgring 24 Hours race in May 2026, signalling that his racing ambitions stretch beyond grand prix weekends.
His message to Red Bull management was direct: stop worrying about convincing me and go work on the car. The faster the car goes, he said, the easier the decision becomes. Mercedes had been circling — George Russell confirmed in June 2025 that the team was talking to Verstappen about a 2027 drive. That conversation is now academic.
Verstappen is staying. The car is not good enough. He has said so publicly. What happens next depends on whether Red Bull can close the gap before those performance clauses start to matter.
