Heavily reliant on Max Verstappen, former F1 team principal Eric Boullier has warned Red Bull that they are in a “dangerous position” if the reigning World Champion misses a race.

And he could miss one, given that he has 11 penalty points on his Super Licence, which is one away from an automatic race ban.

Would Red Bull score a point if Max Verstappen were banned?

Verstappen courted controversy at the Spanish Grand Prix when he clattered into George Russell in a move that the Mercedes driver felt was “very deliberate”.

The stewards ruled that the ‘collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions’ of Verstappen and gave him a 10-second penalty that dropped him from fifth to tenth at the chequered flag.

He was also given three penalty points on his Super Licence, moving him to within one point of a race ban.

Verstappen doesn’t lose any of his points in the rolling 12-month system until after the Austrian Grand Prix, meaning transgression from in Canada or Austria could see him banned from the very next race.

Given that he has scored 137 of Red Bull’s 144 points this season, that is a grave concern for the Milton Keynes squad.

In fact, even Verstappen falling ill should be a worry for the team says former Lotus team principal Boullier.

Max Verstappen’s transgressions and possible replacements

👉 F1 penalty points: Verstappen dangerously close to race ban after Russell clash

👉 Who could replace Max Verstappen as possible race ban looms?

“Max is special, and is on his way to being the new GOAT, as you say, he is on top of it, and it is funny because you like him or you don’t,” the Frenchman told RacingNews365.

“Obviously, he is quite rough and tough when he is in the car, but this is what he has to be, and it is a privilege to know him personally. He is actually a very nice person, but he is a fierce competitor.

“What he can do with the car is amazing, because he can extract from his car, his team-mates cannot, and whoever you put with him as a team-mate, you say: ‘Oh, he’s at the back’, so he is clearly holding the team.

“But it is quite a dangerous position as well, and I don’t wish to see anything bad, but if one of the McLaren drivers were ill, the other one could step up tomorrow.

“If Max is ill, what is going to happen to Red Bull?”

However, more than illness or a race ban is the prospect of Red Bull losing Verstappen to a rival team or even retirement amidst reports the reigning World Champion could quit the team if he is fourth or lower in the 2025 standings.

Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya addressed this on his latest AS podcast, where he opined that Yuki Tsunoda is not the driver to replace Verstappen as Red Bull’s leading man.

And that, says the former McLaren driver, has left Red Bull facing a serious conundrum.

“[He] started very well and in the last few races he is getting worse. What’s going to happen there? And Lawson is not doing so well either,” he said.

“Red Bull is in a complicated position because they have a chance of losing Max, they don’t want Tsunoda and they probably don’t want Lawson.

“They’re not in an easy position. Everything that comes their way is very complicated. But we’ll see. I think that 2026 is going to be a very interesting year.”

Verstappen has been linked to Mercedes and Aston Martin while his former mechanic Calum Nicholas believes he could retire at the end of the season.

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