Verstappen out, Mekies under pressure: Jos and Vermeulen in conversation in Red Bull, Mintzlaff also present. Goodbye in sight?

What tension. There is an air of showdown in the Red Bull garage after the end of the Silverstone GP and at this point the fact that the former Milton Keynes team principal Christian Horner was present on the English track this weekend, exactly one year after his ‘defenestration’, almost takes on the flavor of a bitter joke. Because the climate between the current Red Bull team principal, Laurent Mekies, and Max Verstappen’s entire entourage seems to have become extremely tense after the withdrawal of the four-time world champion in the British GP. Verstappen ended up in the gravel with six laps to go, at the Stowe corner, while in third position. His accident, however, does not appear to be due to pilot error but to a problem in the closing of the rear wing. A similar failure, but different in specific detail, to the one that sent Verstappen to the wall in Q3 of the Austrian GP. The Dutchman was furious after the match. His radio teams and his body language expressed all his anger towards a car that was not fast enough and very difficult to drive. But at this point Max also seems to be at odds with the team, considering that the team did not support him in his decision to start from the pit lane in today’s race, intervening on a car setup that he considered “terrible”. The beginning of the end? After the conclusion of the race Jos Verstappen, Raymond Vermeulen, Laurent Mekies and Oliver Mintzlaff were seen having a long and animated discussion inside the Red Bull hospitality and it is more than likely that the topic of the chat was the future of Jos’ son. Today’s retirement also makes it arithmetically impossible for Verstappen to be in the top two positions of the championship at the time of the summer break. This will allow the automatic activation of the exit clause from Verstappen’s contract, who has until September to exercise it and therefore to free himself from Red Bull. The fact that the Dutchman did not want to renounce this clause in recent weeks, despite an offer of eight million euros made by Red Bull, testifies to how the future of the #3 orange is anything but solid in Red Bull. And who knows if Mekies today will have managed to convince Vermeulen and Jos Verstappen of the team’s development and growth plans. Red Bull has never been so close to losing Max and the other teams, McLaren first and foremost, are waiting by the window to see what will happen.

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-05 17:43:00