F1 News: Red Bull facing new setback in bid to keep Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen

Red Bull facing new setback in bid to keep Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen's long-term future at Red Bull is up for debate

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 12 July 2026 17:30

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Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies has suggested that the Belgian Grand Prix may provide yet more misery for four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen.

Verstappen is currently languishing down in seventh in the drivers' championship, and has not claimed a single race victory yet this season.

The Dutchman suffered a third DNF of the season last time out at Silverstone, after a failure on his RB22 led to the rear wing not closing properly heading into the high-speed Stowe Corner.

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Verstappen's future is in doubt at Red Bull, despite being under contract until 2028. The four-time world champion has performance-based exit clauses in that deal - as per his manager Raymond Vermeulen - and Red Bull have not provided him with a car that can challenge for championships amid the new regulations.

One of those exit clauses is understood to involve Verstappen being allowed to leave the team, if he is not in the top two of the drivers' championship by the time of the summer break. That is now a mathematical certainty - he is 78 points away from the top two with only two races to go.

Following Verstappen's crash at Silverstone, Mekies suggested Red Bull may struggle at Belgium next time out in another blow to any remaining hopes of keeping the four-time world champion.

Mekies baffled by lack of performance

"It's a good representation of the complexity of where we are with the cars," Mekies told media after the British Grand Prix.

"Now, a week ago we were fighting for the win [in Austria] and pretty much a few days later here in Silverstone we were hitting some pretty strong limitations that stopped us from extracting everything we could out of our package.

"Yes, we think it's compounding with a track like Silverstone, when there is an energy-starving circuit, we seem to be struggling more.

"So on tracks where energy limitations are strong we seem to be struggling more compared to competition. And in that respect, I'm afraid Spa is probably in that category as well."

When is the Belgian Grand Prix?

The next race on the calendar takes place on Sunday July 19 with a 3pm local start time at Spa-Francorchamps. That is 2pm in the UK and 9am Eastern/6am Pacific in the US.

It is NOT a Sprint weekend at Spa so we have the normal F1 format of FP1 and FP2 on Friday July 17, FP3 and Qualifying on Saturday July 18 and the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday July 19.

The action on track starts at 1330 local time on Friday with FP1 (1230 in the UK, 0730 Eastern).

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Laurent Mekies