Max Verstappen cuts a relaxed, if not exhausted, figure on the eve of the British GP weekend. Red Bull cap on, chatting to me in a glassy open space high in the team’s Energy Station hospitality unit, the Dutchman is mentally braced for a tough weekend.

Last year he was batting away questions about the departure of Adrian Newey or his revolving door of team-mates. Today we’re asking him about rumours of a sensational move to Mercedes in 2026. And days later, Christian Horner, Red Bull’s long-standing team principal, will be sacked.

Gone mid-week, mid-season with immediate effect – much like the drivers he’s employed for the last two decades, Horner’s sacking is the latest and biggest of Red Bull’s various unravellings. It follows the departures of ex-sporting director James Wheatley (to Sauber and soon Audi) as well as ex-designer Adrian Newey to Aston Martin. 

Like so many things in F1, his position appeared to be at a permanent tipping point, with business as usual in public and rumoured disquiet behind closed doors. And it’s very possible Verstappen knows of this upcoming bomb when he sits down with me ahead of Silverstone.

For most drivers, all of this would be a distraction. For Verstappen, it’s background noise. Come Saturday, he puts his RB21 on pole – ahead of British crowd favourites Norris, Hamilton and Russell. It’s a familiar narrative. Max under pressure, Max performing. It’s the kind of display that demands respect.

‘It’s just instinct,’ Verstappen tells me, recalling his move on Oscar Piastri at Imola. ‘You see the moment evolve and it’s just like a split second – okay, I’m doing it.’

For Verstappen, instinct and decision-making are one and the same. ‘It’s very hard to explain,’ he shrugs. ‘Experience comes into play… You trust yourself to make the right call – if it’s possible or not.’ For Max, it usually is.

Since his debut win in Barcelona in 2016, Verstappen has carved out a fearsome reputation – the heir to Vettel, the man who controversially dethroned Hamilton in 2021. But from a charge through the field in Spa 2022 to a wet-weather masterclass in Brazil 2024, his career glitters now with legendary drives. No wonder Toto Wolff wants him in a Silver Arrow.

‘The pressure was on. I had to perform, I had to try and not lose points,’ he says, recalling Interlagos 2024. Starting P17, compared to championship rival Norris starting first, Verstappen had it all to do. ‘I knew that it was going to be a tough race, but we got locked in,’ he tells me.

Comparisons with his rival Hamilton are always inevitable. Both are once-in-a-generation talents, both partly the product of a father’s ambition – but off-track they couldn’t be more different. Hamilton is a global icon in fashion and sport, fluent in celebrity culture and philanthropy. Max? He’s happiest behind the wheel – likely clad in Red Bull merch.

‘It was really nice, to get out there finally in real life,’ Verstappen tells me of his recent visit to the Nürburgring. Involving 73 corners packed with high-speed jeopardy, it’s among the ultimate tests for a driver – so naturally Max had to give it a go.

‘I’ve done thousands of laps on the simulator around there,’ he continues, now more animated. ‘It was great to get out there with the GT3 car and have some fun.’

But what makes a four-time world champion log laps on a sim rig? ‘It’s competition,’ he shrugs. ‘You’re racing others, constantly trying to improve. You work on set-up, look at data, go through strategy. You’re defending, overtaking, doing pitstops.’ Competition for work and leisure – the ultimate F1 driver mindset.

These feel like the words of a motorsport fan – not the words of a four-time world champion. But Max is both. He’s interested in competing in other motorsports, but they’ll have to wait until after F1. ‘I would like to do it, but it’s a little bit too difficult to combine with F1. Let’s see in the future if it’s possible.’

Back to 2025, though, and Max is having a tough time. The RB21 is the first Red Bull not designed by Adrian Newey in years – and it shows. The car isn’t on the same level as McLaren’s, and a week earlier in Austria he’s taken out by teenage prodigy Kimi Antonelli.

‘Every driver has had a moment where they’ve locked up or misjudged the situation,’ Max says calmly. He smiles. ‘Life goes on – and I try not to make too much of a scene out of it. We get on very well. First of all, he’s a great kid. But also, mistakes happen.’

It’s hard not to see a bit of Max in Antonelli – a teen hailed as the future, dropped into F1 with all the weight of expectation. Maybe Max is mellowing. Or maybe he’s the only one who truly understands Antonelli’s world.

Four titles later, Max is in a different space. ‘I’ve got nothing to prove,’ he shrugs, ‘I just want to keep winning. Actually, I want to win more – but there’s not another goal I’m chasing. I just want to do the same thing.’

But where will that be? Max knows only too well how much needs to go right to win. With Red Bull losing talent and performance, speculation over his next move will only intensify with Horner’s departure.

Verstappen seemed to feel resigned about the 2025 championship at the British GP, and his race was particularly challenging. ‘It won’t be hard to do better than last week,’ he joked with me, referring to his DNF in Austria the previous weekend. ‘Our car normally is good in the very high speed, so there are a few corners I think that we’ll be okay,’ he said on the Thursday. ‘But there are some low-speed corners where we have been struggling,’ he warned.

Forced to gamble on car set-up, even one of F1’s rainmasters was unable to make the difference on race day. So tricky was the Red Bull that the Dutchman made an unusual mistake on the safety-car restart – and seemed to be wrestling the RB21 the whole afternoon. 

It went against a narrative that’s developed throughout the last two years, with the four-time world champion unable to jam his car into a position it has no right to be. The performance gap between the Red Bull and Mclaren is now so large that even Verstappen can’t make the difference in the rain. With that in mind, the Silverstone race felt like a watershed of sorts – the Verstappen equivalent of Singapore 2012. It’s likely been the catalyst for something.

Horner’s departure could mean two things: it could either be a sign of Red Bull guaranteeing Max Verstappen’s continuing services, or it could precede the Dutchman’s move to Mercedes. 

Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, has made no secret of his low regard for Horner and has said numerous times that the team would ultimately fall apart if Horner remained at the helm. Perhaps interest from Mercedes – as well as an uncharacteristically uncompetitive Red Bull – has made Verstappen senior’s argument that bit stronger. 

Of course, Horner’s departure could also be the result of a failure to keep Verstappen – and even Wheatley and Newey to an extent. Horner’s ability to assemble and retain F1’s best talent had been one his strong suits. If Max Verstappen has already said he’s departing, that would have deprived Horner of a major gambling chip. So much in F1 goes on behind the scenes, and not all of it becomes public knowledge; there’s still plenty more to this story.

Before we wrap, I ask about Tag Heuer – the Red Bull partner that facilitated this chat. It’s now the official timekeeper of Formula 1.

‘What I really enjoyed was going to Switzerland and seeing how they make the watches,’ says Max, now in a slightly more media-trained tone, being the seasoned pro.

In 2025 F1 comes with more scrutiny, more questions and more stress than ever before. But strip away big-money deals, the Drive to Survive drama and the dysfunctional team, and Max is one of the greatest to ever sit behind a wheel.

While he talks about the personalised Monaco he’s wearing, I can’t help but think of something else he said earlier: ‘I just enjoy the driving part, it’s what I grew up wanting to do. I know that with F1 growing, some other bits come with it, so you must accept that. But my joy still comes from sitting in the car, and just getting the most out of it.’