Verstappen commits to Red Bull until 2030, ending speculation over Mercedes or McLaren switch

Max Verstappen has signed a new contract with Red Bull that will keep him at the team until the end of 2030, drawing a line under speculation about his future beyond this season.

The four-time world champion had been linked with potential moves to Mercedes or McLaren after his previous deal, which ran to the end of 2028, included clauses allowing him to leave at the end of the current campaign.

Verstappen, 28, said the team had the best people around him and that he was excited to keep working with everyone to get back to the top. He said returning to the summit remained the ultimate goal the team was working towards, and that Red Bull had always felt like a second family to him.

He added that what the team had achieved together since he joined – four world championships and many memorable moments – had been simply lovely, and that continuing the journey with the same team he had spent his whole career with was something he had always wanted to do.

Red Bull have endured a difficult start to the sport's new regulations for cars and engines introduced this season. Verstappen's best results so far have been two second-place finishes, in Austria and Hungary, following a season in 2025 in which he came within two points of denying McLaren's Lando Norris the world title after clawing back a deficit of more than 100 points in the second half of the year.

Red Bull's dip in competitiveness has prompted Verstappen to voice frustration at times this season, but he has ultimately opted to remain with the team he knows – despite his long-time race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, having already signed to join McLaren by 2028.

Verstappen also praised team principal Laurent Mekies, who took over in July last year after Christian Horner was sacked following a turbulent 18-month period and a decline in the team's form. He said working with Mekies over the past year had been great, and that he could see a clear vision for where the team was headed.

He added that everyone at the team's Milton Keynes base believed in what they were building, and that he was looking forward to fighting for more victories and championships as the team shaped its future.

The announcement was timed to coincide with Verstappen's final home race weekend before the Dutch Grand Prix falls off the calendar, with Zandvoort set to lose its slot going forward.

Mekies said retaining the best driver on the grid was fantastic news for the team, describing the partnership between Verstappen and Red Bull as one of the finest in sport.

He said Verstappen had embodied everything that made Red Bull Racing distinctive since the very beginning – uncompromising competitiveness, relentless determination and a willingness to challenge convention – and that his impact on the team's story had been transformational. Mekies added that the decision to continue together was rooted in years of mutual trust, and that despite the success already achieved, there remained more races to win and history still to write.

As is standard practice in Formula 1 driver contracts, there are understood to be mechanisms by which Verstappen could leave before 2030 if performance falls short of expectations, though the specific terms have not been disclosed.

Verstappen began his Formula 1 career with Red Bull's junior team, then known as Toro Rosso, in 2015, before being promoted to the senior team four races into the 2016 season – winning on his debut for the main team. He has since claimed 71 grand prix victories to go with his four world titles, placing him third on the sport's all-time win list behind Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.