The prediction of the former Colombian driver
The 2026 F1 World Championship will kick off over the weekend in Melbourne, Australia. Albert Park will issue the first verdicts after weeks of pre-tactics in which all four top teams essentially claimed to be the fourth force on the track to shift expectations onto their opponents.
Red Bull certainly demonstrated in the tests that it can have a decidedly more reliable and high-performance power unit than one might think, but according to Juan Pablo Montoya this will not be enough to allow Max Verstappen to fight for the world title.
The Colombian has indicated George Russell and Mercedes as the winners of the 2026 titles and according to Juancho Verstappen he could end up in Mercedes or McLaren at a sale price: “If you are third and you want Verstappen you have to fulfill all his requests, but if you win repeatedly and he wants to come to you the situation is reversed – said the former Colombian pilot reached by Vision4Sport – you don’t have to give him 70 million anymore, but you can offer him 20. I think that glory is now more important for Verstappen than money because he has already earned enough and therefore the teams can now get him at a sale price.”
