There may be plenty of “noise” around Max Verstappen’s future at Red Bull, but the Dutch driver has been tipped to ignore it and remain with his team next year.

Speculation has abounded over the past year that Verstappen may seek pastures new before the end of his Red Bull contract, which expires after F1 2028, perhaps even as early as next season if performance clauses come into play.

Max Verstappen ‘won’t walk away from a fight’

Verstappen has raced for Red Bull since the middle of 2016 and, with the Milton Keynes-based squad, has won all four of his Drivers’ Championship titles.

But off-track matters last year appeared to put strain on the relationship between Verstappen’s father Jos and team boss Christian Horner, which led to the Dutchman calling for Horner’s job.

Red Bull delivered Verstappen another title last season, but it wasn’t smooth sailing – the team lost its way with the development of the RB20 and Verstappen found himself having to massage results home to secure a hard-fought title.

Between the off-track matters and the on-track struggles, rival teams sensed opportunity, and speculation emerged to suggest Mercedes and Aston Martin were making big-money offers to secure the services of Verstappen.

Mercedes’ Toto Wolff made no secret of his admiration of Verstappen but, with Verstappen eventually re-iterating his commitment to Red Bull, the mutterings died down with Mercedes instead choosing to promote Kimi Antonelli as the successor to Lewis Hamilton’s vacated seat.

Red Bull has won just one of the first five races this year, with the RB21 a clear step forward on last year’s car in terms of balance. However, it has been overshadowed by the performance levels of the McLaren MCL39 and it’s only been through Verstappen’s relentless performance – combined with Red Bull’s sharpness – which has kept the gap at just 12 points between him and the championship lead.

The rumours of Aston Martin’s interest in Verstappen increased again over the Saudi Arabian GP weekend, with reports suggesting Lawrence Stroll’s team had made an astronomical $300 million dollar play for Verstappen, with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) suggested as being willing to foot the bill.

However, Verstappen has downplayed the possibility of him leaving the team, saying he’s concentrating on his driving and saying that “everyone’s talking” apart from him.

Discussing the speculation on the latest episode of the F1 Nation podcast, F1 broadcaster Tom Clarkson said, “I do think Max Verstappen is committed to Red Bull.

“I think there’s a lot of noise around him at the moment, and a lot of talk of performance clauses, and none of us know what is written in his contract, other than it’s, like all Formula 1 contracts, the end of July is a key moment in terms of renewals.

“That’s the case across the board. If he wins the World title, I think he’ll be in the car – even if he’s top three, I think he’ll be in the car next year.

“I don’t think Max Verstappen is one of those people that walks away from a fight. There’s nothing about him that makes me think he’s not going to push to the limit.”

That noise was addressed by Christian Horner after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with the Red Bull boss saying, “there’s been a lot of noise, but the noise has been out there and not necessarily in here [at Red Bull].

“Max is working very hard with the team. He stated, once again, that his focus is here. He’s working incredibly hard on this together, collectively, with the rest of the team. You know, we’re a team. We win together, we lose together.

“That’s the way that we operate. Our focus is on sorting the car out, which we’ve had a decent Saturday and Sunday here, and everything’s still in play.”

Pointing out that the concerns about him leaving Red Bull stemmed from comments made by Helmut Marko, and not Verstappen or his father or manager, former Renault F1 driver Jolyon Palmer agreed with Clarkson’s assertion and said, “He’s committed, and he’s certainly committed at the moment, because I think no one wants to win like Max wants to win. I mean, he can win 19 out of 22 races, and he still wants to go to the finale, and he’s desperate to put it on pole and win in Abu Dhabi a couple of years ago.

“He is just hungry for success at every opportunity. So it doesn’t matter. You could chuck him in any car right now, and he would be committed to doing the best he possibly could on that weekend.

“But, by the same token, I think if we get another five races into the season… it’s kind of too early to tell, but Red Bull have done enough to obviously show that he can still win the championship this year.”

Where things could change, Palmer reckons, is if Red Bull isn’t able to keep up in the development race through this season – a scenardio which might fail to reassure Verstappen that the loss of former chief technical officer Adrian Newey to Aston Martin has been compensated for sufficiently.

“But, if we get another five races down the line, I think the Barcelona one is a key race, and, suddenly, he thinks that actually the the wheels are coming off a little bit, and he’s just falling away, and there’s a lot of change at Red Bull for next year…” Palmer said.

“If he thinks that there’s a chance that they’re not going to be able to provide a race winning machine, let alone a championship winning machine, he is going to be looking elsewhere.

“Because he’s just here to win, he’s not here to make up the numbers at all. I think he’d rather walk away than make up the numbers.”

Sky F1 presenter Natalie Pinkham agreed, saying she believes the Dutch driver is actually enjoying his new scenario of battling hard to claim unlikely victories.

“100 percent. Max is always in the title fight,” she said.

“I mean, in many ways, I think he’s been reveling in this role of underdog. I think, actually, he’s quite enjoying being the hunter, rather than hunted for once.

“He’s pulling out laps like he did in Japan and Saudi, just astonishing, against all the odds. Everyone’s talking him down, and then he just delivers absolute perfection.”

Read Next: Fernando Alonso boost with big Newey and Aston Martin prediction made