The future of Max Verstappen at Red Bull is becoming an increasingly hot topic as the teenager’s frustration mounts with a spate of bad reliability clearly annoying him, and thus he has reportedly told his team bosses that he wants out of the team so he can join Ferrari next year.
The Independent newspaper is quoting pit lane sources have saying that it increasingly appears to be a matter of if, not when the young Dutchman moves to Maranello.
The report also claims: “The Dutchman has reportedly asked to leave his current team ahead of the 2019 season.”
This reference to what Red Bull are claiming to be a rock solid contract with Verstappen until at least the end of 2018.
The team’s driver consultant Helmut Marko has previously said, “Contrary to all the rumours there is no performance clause in Verstappen’s contract. If we do not release him, he cannot switch to Ferrari.”
But it must be remembered that it was Marko who last year denied that Verstappen was being promoted to the Red Bull team at the expense of Daniil Kvyat, yet a week after that the teenager made his debut for Red Bull in Barcelona.
On Friday in Austria, Marko inadvertently revealed that a week earlier he was in a meeting with Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene and the Italian team’s ‘Mister Fix-it” Gino Rosato.
A source close to Ferrari has told us that this was the first meeting to discuss Red Bull’s conditions for releasing Verstappen.
Meanwhile Red Bull have triggered their option on Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, which means the Spaniard is set to stay with the energy drinks organisation beyond 2017.
Perhaps as cover to replace Verstappen, should the Dutchman and his management team engineer a path to Maranello at the end of this season.
Big Question: Would a move to Ferrari be good for Max?
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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