Ralf Schumacher has predicted Max Verstappen to leave Red Bull at the end of 2025, should an improvement not be found in the coming races.

Formula 1 is set to embark on a triple-header in the coming weekends, with Japan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia all featuring on the calendar in consecutive weeks as the season begins to take shape.

Ralf Schumacher predicts Max Verstappen to leave Red Bull with four-race reasoning

Verstappen admitted after the Chinese Grand Prix that Red Bull sits behind the pace of the teams around them on the evidence of that race, and when asked if there was a ‘quick fix’ to what needs to be done, he told reporters in Shanghai: “It’s impossible to say, because it might, it might not.

“We just keep working, just have to stick together, push hard. That’s what we all do.

“I know that the team is working flat out. I never doubted that anyway, so we just keep on trying to improve.”

The reigning World Champion, who is contracted to race with Red Bull until 2028, has also knocked back suggestions that he will leave the team at the end of the year, with team boss Christian Horner admitting last year that “every contract has a performance element in it”, regarding the requirement for the team to stay towards the front of the field.

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The exact details of that agreement remain under wraps, but former Williams and Toyota driver Schumacher believes that, should Red Bull’s form not improve in the coming rounds, Verstappen may take the decision into his own hands.

“I think Max will leave the team,” Schumacher told the Formel1.de YouTube channel.

“Especially if nothing happens in the next two, three or four races, because then the decision will be made.”

The Red Bull driver’s father, Jos Verstappen, responded to recent claims from Zak Brown that his son could be set for a move to Mercedes by saying that “[Brown is] only is trying to stir sh*t.”

In the immediate term surrounding car performance, however, Red Bull team principal Horner agreed that the team are not currently setting the pace, but that Verstappen is doing all he can for his part to help make a difference behind the scenes.

Horner said in China: “McLaren are the benchmark. They’ve won the first two races, that’s who we have to beat.

“We’re working very hard collectively as a team, and Max is working harder than I’ve ever seen in terms of putting the effort in and giving real direction from what he needs from the car to find that missing pace.”

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