'Verstappen could switch to Mercedes at the end of 2023'

Max Verstappen has been under contract with Red Bull Racing for a number of years now and will be in the near future. However, the team hasn't been able to provide Verstappen with material that would allow him to become a champion. Verstappen continues to express confidence in his team, but of course this cannot continue indefinitely. A step to Mercedes is not unthinkable, but it will take some time.

At Red Bull until the end of 2023

Marc Priestley, former McLaren engineer, answered all kinds of questions in a YouTube livestream and Verstappen also came up. Priestley suggests that Verstappen will remain with Red Bull until the end of 2023, unless performance really gets too poor.

"He’s locked in until the end of 2023, after that I believe there is a very high chance he will be looking to move on. If you think about Lewis Hamilton’s next contract, highly likely to be a three year contract which will take him through 2021, 2022, and 2023, that’s when, I’m pretty sure, Max comes up for renewal."

"Even I’m sure he has escape clauses based on performance. That could be the opportunity for Max maybe to get himself in a Mercedes,” says Priestley to nuance it a little. "But who knows by then, Mercedes is not going necessarily be the quickest car by that point. Will it even be called Mercedes?"

In short, it can go in any direction, but if the field distribution will not change in the next few years, Priestley says there is a good chance that Verstappen will change.