Max Verstappen could leave Red Bull if he is not placed within the top two of the championship standings by the summer break, according to a report. 

Verstappen’s long-term future at Red Bull has been the subject of much conversation giving the alarming competitive slump of the team, with the RB21 not the fastest car in the field – an honour which goes to McLaren’s MCL39.

The world champion’s deal expires at the end of 2028, but has been heavily-linked with moves to Mercedes or Aston Martin, should he leave the team he joined in mid-2016.

It has now been reported by The Race that a clause in Verstappen’s contract means that unless he is within the top two of the drivers’ championship by the summer break, he could leave the team, if he and his management team so wished.

Verstappen is currently third in the standings on 87 points, two points behind second-placed Lando Norris and 12 behind leader Oscar Piastri. 

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur insists he is “not too worried” about Lewis Hamilton’s struggles so far this season – adding that analysis of the Scuderia’s form dipping “dramatically” is “f****** bull****”.

Hamilton, 40, has endured a difficult start to his £50m-a-year time at Ferrari, failing to finish higher than fifth in five races, though he did win the sprint race in China.

The seven-time F1 world champion has repeatedly voiced his frustrations at being unable to adapt to the SF-25 car, following 12 years with Mercedes. Yet having finished seventh in Saudi Arabia on Sunday – with teammate Charles Leclerc on the podium – the Briton admitted that he “couldn’t blame the car” for his position in Jeddah.

Hamilton lies seventh in the drivers’ standings and already trails championship leader Oscar Piastri by 68 points. Yet Ferrari team principal Vasseur believes it is a “positive” that Hamilton is so downbeat.

“I will give him support and we will start straight away to find solutions,” Vasseur said, after the race in Saudi.

“I am not too worried. Have a look at what he did in China or what he did in Bahrain last week or even in the first part of the session this weekend. The potential is there for sure.

“He’s down because he finished seventh and his team-mate is on the podium. It is positive that Lewis is down because if he was happy, it wouldn’t be normal.”

Questioned further on the Scuderia’s “dramatic” slump in form – from a position where they finished second in last year’s constructors’ championship – Vasseur reacted firmly.

“Dramatically?” he said. “We have done five races so far. I know that you won’t have the big headlines tomorrow that Fred said this, but this is f****** bull****.

“You have ups and downs. When we have an up, we are not world champions. When we are down, we are not nowhere.”

Hamilton was nearly lost for words after finishing the Saudi race where he started, in seventh place.

Asked if he felt comfortable at all, in the fifth race of the 2025 season, Hamilton’s reply was short: “No. There wasn’t one second.

“Clearly the car is capable of being P3, Charles did a great job today, I can’t blame the car.”

Questioned if he had any idea why the car wasn’t working for him, Hamilton simply responded: “No.”

Ferrari are expected to bring an upgrade package to the next race in Miami (2-4 May), with both Hamilton and Leclerc revealing they will be present at Ferrari HQ in Maranello this week as they work towards an improved car for the rest of the season.

Formula 1’s relentless start to the season, featuring five races in six weeks, has had a frenetic feel.

One weekend separated the doubleheader that started the campaign and the triple just completed, with five flyaway rounds in the Pacific and Middle East — Australia, China, Japan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia — already in the books. Now the series moves in the other direction of world time zones, with a week off before and after the Miami Grand Prix, the first stand-alone race of the 2025 season.

The likes of new championship leader Oscar Piastri, reigning champion Max Verstappen and Williams duo Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon have been thriving in this early-season sprint. There are several more, however, who will be grateful to have a brief let-up in the schedule.

This is the obvious one. Norris needs to change the whole feel around his season, and he needs to do it fast.

The Englishman started the season in line with his billing as preseason favorite: pole position and victory in Australia, holding on through a chaotic, topsy-turvy race in the rain to win. It felt like a statement performance. Since then, though, it has felt like the wheels have fallen off his title bid. He’s been error-prone, he’s been down on himself and even a little down on the car.

Charles Leclerc took the team’s first grand prix podium of the season.

When asked by Sky Sports if he felt comfortable with the car during the race, Hamilton replied: “There wasn’t one second.” He added: “Well clearly the car is capable of being P3, so … Charles did a great job today, so I can’t blame the car.”

The Race reporting the Australian now has until the summer break.

Alpine has been frustrated at the media because of the continuing rumor mill, but team boss Oliver Oakes has never given a clear answer on whether Doohan will see out the season, so it has been a rather pointless and self-inflicted distraction the team has created. Doohan has found himself in the middle of that, and it’s fair to wonder how much that has affected his form early in the year. Doohan’s name naturally is in the spotlight, regardless of whether a late driver swap materializes. Williams clearly loaned Colapinto to the team with an understanding or belief that he would get some race experience at some point in 2025.

Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson swapped seats in the days after China, the Argentine’s name came up again. Outlets in his home country reported that Red Bull was set to drop Lawson entirely and sign Colapinto to the junior team, a scenario that multiple sources told ESPN was never even explored by Red Bull. The appearance of Colapinto’s name in those reports has made it difficult to trust some of the chatter coming from his camp, and his status as Doohan’s eventual replacement seems less certain now than it was a month ago, even though many in the paddock assume some kind of deal exists for later in the year.

That’s all good news for Doohan, who deserves more time to prove his worth in F1. Alpine has been quick to stress how impressed it has been with him at points, but it’s hardly been a glowing start. Several things have worked against him, beyond the early collection of crashes. One is that Alpine’s car has also not lived up to preseason promise so far. Two is the high benchmark of teammate Pierre Gasly, whose seven points are the difference between the team being ninth and last in the championship. Third is how well other rookies — Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman, especially — have done early in the year.

Assuming Doohan gets the chance to race in Miami, it’s more than most thought he would get just a few weeks ago. He needs to use it as a platform to change the narrative about the lingering expiry date on his F1 career.

Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsundoa | Racing Bulls and Red Bull

There have been three consecutive race weekends since Lawson was replaced by Tsunoda at Red Bull, and Red Bull has good reason to feel positive about the decision.

Tsunoda’s pace has been encouraging. His Saudi tangle with Gasly was unfortunate, a classic opening-lap crash, and ruined what had been an encouraging starting position. Down the pit lane, Lawson has appeared to get a good handle on his Racing Bulls car, although he’s been outperformed by Hadjar so far — understandably, given the nature of his return to the team without any testing.

Hadjar has seen Lawson make a quick improvement in the past 21 days. Speaking after Sunday’s race, the French rookie said: “This weekend [Lawson] was really, really fast. In qualifying, he made the most of the car. He’s definitely getting stronger now, definitely pushing me just like Yuki was pushing me as well.”

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Gasly and Tsunoda crash on the opening lap

Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda collide and crash into the barrier in the opening lap of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies has also said Lawson readjusted to the swap quicker than the team thought he might. The Kiwi was unlucky to get a 10-second penalty in Jeddah but looked to be in the best shape since returning to the junior team.

As for Tsunoda, he’s clearly handling the car and the role as Verstappen’s teammate better than Lawson did in the opening two races. It’s been a whirlwind for Tsunoda and Lawson, and both have a chance now to step back and take some stock of where they are.

Aston Martin

A team to finish this list. Lawrence Stroll’s outfit is absolutely nowhere at the minute.

Clearly there’s a lot of focus on 2026, which new managing technical partner Adrian Newey is predominantly focused on, but it has still been stark to see how off the pace the British Racing Green cars have been. Three pointless races during the tripleheader have stung, especially after Lance Stroll opened the team’s account in the opening two rounds. Most surprisingly is that Fernando Alonso is one of four drivers with a zero next to his name in the championship table — the other three are rookies.

Also on the 2026 focus, the same is true of every other team on the grid. While Aston Martin is switching to an exclusive Honda deal, Red Bull is also juggling its 2025 challenger with a brand-new engine project for 2026. Perhaps more reassuringly for Lawrence Stroll is that the other two teams making major changes for next season — Sauber, set to be taken over by Audi, and Alpine, which will become a Mercedes customer next season — have also had fairly anonymous starts, but F1 is a results business and throwing in the towel is never a good look.

Seeing is believing. Aston Martin has talked a lot about transforming into a championship contender in the near future, but at the moment, the operation all seems to be performing a little below its capabilities.

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Updated: April 21, 2025 @ 2:32 am