Max Verstappen enters the 2025 Formula 1 season with arguably one of the hardest title defences he is going to face since winning his first in 2021.
The Dutchman can equal the great Michael Schumacher as the only driver to win five titles in a row this season, as he looks to continue the impressive run of title success with his Red Bull team.
Nobody was able to get close to Red Bull in the first two years of the current regulation cycle, but now more teams have started to converge as they have introduced upgrades and moved staff around.
Red Bull suffered from an exodus of key staff members last year amid a scandal involving team boss Christian Horner, the most significant of which was Adrian Newey.
Newey left to join Aston Martin and recently started with the team to work on their 2026 car, which presents a big opportunity for them to turn into a title-winning entity.
Verstappen has been vocal about the problems that Red Bull faces this year, and according to journalist Ralf Bach, could be keeping his eye on another team for the future.
Max Verstappen keeping an eye on Aston Martin amid Red Bull trouble
Aston Martin faces a difficult start to 2025 according to Fernando Alonso, owing to something they identified in pre-season testing. The £1.6 billion-valued F1 team produced some of the fewest laps over the three days, largely owing to Alonso and Lance Stroll both falling ill on the final day.
Despite this, the team is seen as one of the potential contenders for a title in 2026 owing to the investments made by billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll.
With Newey onboard and ex-Mercedes powertrains boss Andy Cowell, the Verstappen camp is keeping a watchful eye on things should they want to break away from their commitments from Red Bull earlier.
“There are a lot of stories that say Verstappen is not happy at Red Bull and is messing around with Aston Martin, because he is not convinced by Lawson when it comes to him being good enough due to his inexperience, to help him in the fight for the world championship,” said Bach.
“It’s clear that Max and Jos Verstappen and [Reymond] Vermeulen, his manager, are keeping a close eye on the future and Aston Martin. There is a lot to suggest that Aston could indeed be a target for Verstappen.”
Max Verstappen faces challenge at the start of 2025
It will not be the smooth start to a season that Red Bull has experienced in the last two years, now they are playing catch up to McLaren.
The team is clearly the benchmark after Lando Norris showed blistering race pace during the second day of Bahrain testing.
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Verstappen looked edgy in the RB21 and spent much of the third day trying to reach an optimum setup, something that was compounded by the issue Red Bull faces in slow corners.
Much like its predecessors, the RB21 struggles with kerbs and bumps, with it also featuring a narrow setup window. This will likely characterise Verstappen’s first few races, as the team gets on top of its problems and optimises the current package.
