Red Bull 'offer to remove Max Verstappen F1 exit clause' prompts incredible Jos Verstappen reaction

Max and Jos Verstappen sat in a boat together smiling after Max's retirement from Monaco GP — Photo: © IMAGO

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Red Bull 'offer to remove Max Verstappen F1 exit clause' prompts incredible Jos Verstappen reaction

Jos Verstappen isn't buying this Red Bull rumour

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Monday 3 August 2026 19:45

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Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen remains the key to the 2026 driver market, and though it looks highly unlikely he'll leave Red Bull, the rumour mill continues to go into overdrive as he delays making an official announcement over his future.

Red Bull likely hoped to have locked down their star driver heading into this year's summer break, but just like last year, Verstappen sailed off into the sunset (potentially to holiday with Toto Wolff) having failed to make a decision on where he will be racing next season.

The 28-year-old is technically contracted to race with Red Bull until the end of 2028 but thanks to his performance-based exit clause, talk of a potential move to Mercedes or even McLaren for the Dutchman has dominated both the 2025 and 2026 silly season.

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This year's contract clause is understood to allow Verstappen to leave the team at any point between the summer break and October if he wasn't in the top two of the drivers' standings after the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After the race weekend at the Hungaroring last time out, Verstappen sits down in P6.

Jos Verstappen claps back over exit clause rumours: 'You know absolutely nothing'

As the sport enjoys a three-week break until the champion's home race at Zandvoort on August 23, German publication BILD reported that Red Bull have offered Verstappen's team a contract extension until 2029 that crucially did not contain any exit clauses.

However, Max's father Jos Verstappen has now made it pretty clear that he feels the reports of Red Bull removing the contract clauses are nothing but nonsense.

When a story was posted by Dutch media claiming Red Bull were willing to do a deal with Jos' son under the condition that his contract clause be removed to prevent it causing unrest in the team for years to come, Jos clapped back instantly.

In response to the story posted on social media platform 'X', the former F1 driver and father of Red Bull's star driver wrote: "You know absolutely nothing."

The 54-year-old's brutal reply quickly prompted fans to flock to the comments to urge the Dutch racer to instead clarify his son's future himself.

One comment simply questioned: "Why don't you tell us?" As another wrote: "Well now, you get to tell it to us nicely."

Another social media user even pointed to Max's own response to constant questioning around his future at last month's British Grand Prix, writing: "As Max already said, if there's news, you'll hear it from me. It doesn't get any clearer than that."

Dutch Racing driver and F1 pundit Robert Doornbos recently claimed Verstappen's decision regarding his future on the grid was 'likely' to be announced at his home race in the Netherlands later this month, so watch this space.

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