Astonishing Verstappen move F1’s next big domino

Days after confirmation technical guru Adrian Newey would join Aston Martin next year, the team’s billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll has now reportedly set his sights on a new target.
Three-time world champion Max Verstappen.
The British marque confirmed on Tuesday Newey had signed a deal worth about $150 million over three years, plus bonuses.
READ MORE: Joey drops Hunt bombshell in surprise three-club switch
READ MORE: Ruling ripped as team docked points for extra large bats
READ MORE: Awkward stand-off as $908m star refuses to pay fines
And since that announcement, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive amid reports Stroll had offered Verstappen a monster new deal to follow the legendary designer.
Already earning about $60 million a year at Red Bull, Italian publication Autosprint on Thursday morning (AEST) reported Stroll had offered the 26-year-old a significant pay rise to jump ship for 2026 – the first year of the new engine and aerodynamics era.
Lawrence Stroll is reportedly chasing Max Verstappen in the hopes of signing him to drive for Aston Martin in 2026. Getty
Verstappen however is contracted with Red Bull until the end of 2028, meaning a deal would be far more complicated than simply throwing a truckload of cash in exchange for the young Dutchman’s services.
Red Bull’s catastrophic loss of form this year – they haven’t won a race since June and were comfortably the fourth-fastest car last time out in Monza – has led to several rumours Verstappen wants out of Milton Keynes.
Despite signing Andrea Kimi Antonelli to replace Lewis Hamilton in 2025, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has made no secret of his desire to sign Verstappen somewhere down the road.
Antonelli is also only on a one-year deal.
Securing Newey’s signature is a sure sign Aston Martin and Stroll mean business, but should Verstappen follow Newey, it will leave Stroll an awkward decision to make.
Alonso with Adrian Newey at a press conference announcing Newey’s signing. Getty
Despite dominating earlier in the season, there was tension in the Red Bull camp right from the season-opener in Bahrain.
As details of the investigation into Christian Horner became public, so too did reports of a rift between Verstappen, his father Jos, Horner and Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko.
Verstappen Sr wasn’t happy Horner was allowed to stay in charge of the team. Horner was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing, but the bitterness remained.
Then in May came confirmation of Newey’s departure. It initially looked like Ferrari would be where he would land, but the iconic red team baulked at the prospect of entering a bidding war with Stroll.
Aston Martin, meanwhile, had a breakout season in 2023, and through Fernando Alonso scored seven podiums, including six in the first eight races. The team battled to keep up in the development race though, and eventually fell down the grid.
Aston Martin has slid down the order in 2024 as it loses out in the development race. Getty
This season has been much tougher. They started the season with probably the fourth or fifth fastest car, but again have battled in the development race. They’re now regularly beaten by the much-improved Haas outfit, and even on occasion the Williams of Alex Albon.
However, signing Newey, regarded as one of the brightest technical minds the sport has ever seen, is a clear statement of intent from Stroll. As part of the deal to join the team came a significant chunk of Aston Martin shares, making him a co-owner of the brand and of the team.
Cars Newey designed have won 12 constructors’ and 13 drivers’ titles. He is the king of regulation changes, of which the next will come in 2026.
When the sport went through a safety revolution for the 1998 season, Newey’s McLarens did the double. Mika Hakkinen made it back-to-back drivers titles in 1999, although they lost the constructors’ title to Ferrari.
Another massive change in the aerodynamic regulations for 2009 marked the start of a Newey-led dynasty at Red Bull. Although both championships went to BrawnGP that first season, the Red Bull was comfortably the fastest car by the end of the year.
Then they won both championships in each of the next four seasons. That domination only ended when engine supplier Renault completely missed the mark when new turbo hybrid engines were introduced for 2014. Red Bull were still regarded as having the best chassis on the grid.
Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll and his son Lance, who drives for the team. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
When this current era of ground effect cars began at the start of 2022 again it was Red Bull who had it nailed. Newey was, after all, the only designer on the grid who was around during the last ground effect era in the late 80s.
Nobody is better at designing fast cars from a blank sheet of paper, literally, than Newey. While every other designer on the grid works solely with digital CAD drawings, Newey still to this day does all of his initial sketches by hand, on a drawing board, in painstaking detail.
With such an incredible record, it’s only natural Verstappen – and any other driver for that matter – would want to be wherever Newey is when the new regulations come into effect.
Verstappen is clearly a generational talent, and has shown exactly what he’s capable of when he has a car he’s comfortable with underneath him.
Aston Martin with Adrian Newey at the helm is only one piece of the puzzle. Adding to that temptation is the uncertainly over Red Bull’s engine.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull are batting an out of control form slump. Formula 1 via Getty Images
The team will wave goodbye to their rebadged Honda engines at the end of next season, and begin a technical alliance with Ford.
Would such an uncertainly be enough to scare Verstappen away from Red Bull? The team which has been built around him since his promotion to the team midway through 2016?
Honda, meanwhile, will saddle up with who else but Aston Martin. The Japanese brand will, however, be forced to start from scratch having signed over their entire F1 engine program to Red Bull when they pulled out of the sport at the end of 2021.
But right now, Red Bull are battling a massive form slump. Verstappen and the team haven’t won a race since June. Could that alone be enough for Verstappen to jump ship?
And what about Mercedes? Toto Wants to work with Verstappen, and the brand nearly signed him back in 2014 before Red Bull came along and pulled the rug out from beneath their feet.
Mercedes have more or less clawed back the deficit they gave up at the start of the ground effect era. Getty
Verstappen signed with Red Bull, made his debut for Toro Rosso in 2015, and the rest is history.
There is no doubt Mercedes missed the mark with the introduction of the ground effect cars, but they have since developed their wait out of that hole and are now battling for race wins once more.
Having missed the mark once, surely it won’t happen again.
For Lawrence Stroll to secure the signature of Max Verstappen, he will surely have to make a tough personal decision.
Sacking his own son, Lance.
Having earlier in his career proven more than capable behind the wheel of an F1 car – he has three podium finishes to his name – Lance’s better years appear to be behind him.
Although aged only 25, Stroll has been comprehensively outperformed by his 43-year-old two-time world champion teammate Fernando Alonso.
Alonso won the head-to-head 17-4 in 2023, and leads it 11-5 a year later. Alonso is signed with Aston Martin until the end of 2026.
Lance Stroll has battled to keep up with his teammate in the past two seasons. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Stroll seems unable to provide detailed feedback about the car’s behaviours to his engineers, who more or less are relying only on Alonso to develop the car.
There is little doubt this is having an affect on their performance overall.
Aston Martin does have a team in the World Endurance Championship, so shifting Stroll to that program would be logical.
At the end of the day, there is a significant amount of water still to flow under the bridge before Verstappen signs with Aston Martin.
But one thing is for sure, the proverbial grass in the Aston Martin garage is starting to look as green as the race cars themselves.
The F1 circus continues at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend. The race will begin at 9pm Sunday (AEST).