Max Verstappen: F1 world champion’s Red Bull future under the spotlight ahead of Australian GP

Is there really a chance Max Verstappen could leave Red Bull before the end of his long-term contract? Assessing who has said what so far; watch the Australian GP live on Sky Sports F1 with the first Sunday race of the new season live at 4am

Max Verstappen heads into this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix aiming to equal his own record of 10 consecutive Formula 1 race wins. The most astonishing fact about that is Red Bull’s triple world champion only set the original milestone 11 races and six months ago.

Currently enjoying an unprecedented level of dominance over the sport, and armed with a car that remains easily the class of the field at the start of the new 2024 season, discussion around Verstappen’s future right now appears counterintuitive.

But with continued off-track turbulence at the world champions following the conclusion of the investigation into Christian Horner, which resulted in the grievance against the team principal being dismissed, speculation has been rife as to whether Verstappen will actually see out a deal that ostensibly runs to the end of 2028.