For a year the escape hatch in Max Verstappen's contract has been a hypothetical. Heading into Formula 1's summer break, it is a live option. Verstappen's Red Bull deal, signed in 2022 and running to the end of 2028, carries a performance clause that lets him walk if he is outside the top two of the drivers' championship when the season pauses. Sitting seventh, a long way behind runaway leader Kimi Antonelli, he now comfortably meets that condition. The window to act runs across the break.
The clause being active and the clause being used are two very different things, as Verstappen's manager Raymond Vermeulen was quick to stress. "A lot is being written," he told Austrian outlet OE24. "But the truth is that Max wants to finish his stint at Red Bull. He has a contract through 2028 and wants to see it out." On the release mechanism itself, Vermeulen was dismissive: "The fact that this clause exists doesn't mean we'll use it. We could have done so in recent years as well, but we didn't."
He also swatted away the rumour that lit up mid-July - a photographed meeting in Amsterdam between Vermeulen, Jos Verstappen and former Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko. "That was a private appointment that had been planned for a long time," Vermeulen said. "Moreover, Max's sister got married." And with Red Bull's form ticking back up - Verstappen won last time out at Spa - he sounded like a man in no hurry to leave: "Probably not at Spa, but in Budapest and Zandvoort the chances are increasing."
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies is reading the same signals, while being honest about the condition attached to them. Verstappen, he said, "has made clear to us that he wants to continue with the team" - but Mekies knows the commitment is not unconditional, acknowledging his driver "needs a fast car to be happy." His conclusion is that the only way to end the speculation is to build one, not to win an argument in the press.
Marko, who left his Red Bull role at the end of 2025 but remains close to the Verstappen camp, was pointedly hands-off when asked where Max lands in 2027. "No idea. I am not in charge anymore," he said. Pushed on whether an upturn in Red Bull's performance could keep Verstappen, he deflected to the current boss: "That's also not my business. You have to ask Laurent."
The subtext to all of it is that the doors Verstappen might walk through are quietly closing. Mercedes has moved to keep George Russell and Kimi Antonelli for 2027, with Toto Wolff insisting the four-time champion is off his radar, and Oscar Piastri has made clear he sees no room alongside him at McLaren. An open exit clause is only worth as much as the seat waiting on the other side of it.
For now, every voice around Verstappen is telling the same story: the clause is unlocked, the stated intention is to stay, and the decision - Vermeulen has hinted - may come before the grid scatters for August.
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*Originally published on [Formula News](https://newsformula.one/article/verstappens-red-bull-exit-clause-is-live-but-he-wants-to-stay). Visit for full coverage.*