Will Christian Horner Let Max Verstappen Go Even Under Contract? Year Old Promise Reveals the Answer

With Red Bull being as poor as they were at the Bahrain GP last weekend, rumors of Max Verstappen pushing an exit from the team have only exacerbated. The Dutchman was only able to manage a P6 finish at the Sakhir International Circuit last weekend after the RB21’s balance issues proved too difficult for him to handle.

After the disastrous outing, which was worsened by pit stop blunders by the team, Verstappen seemingly had enough. This was given further credence by the fact that after the Grand Prix, his manager, Raymond Vermeulen, was seen in a heated spat with Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.

While no one knows what they discussed, reports emerged soon after that Verstappen is considering leaving Red Bull after this season. If he wants to leave the team, he will definitely have plenty of options as he is a four-time world champion.

However, since Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull till the end of the 2028 season, will he be permitted to leave? A quote that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner made last year may answer that question.

Are Red Bull facing a race against time to prevent Max Verstappen from triggering his exit clause?

The prospect of Max walking away has never been so real, writes @OllieHarden.https://t.co/dmogG4h9nl pic.twitter.com/XG8PCi0UH7

— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) April 15, 2025

“It’s like anything in life, you can’t force somebody to be somewhere just because of a piece of paper. If somebody didn’t want to be at this team, then we’re not going to force somebody against their will to be here,” Horner had said last year when asked about rumors about whether Verstappen wanted to leave the team.

Horner was asked this question after Verstappen had made it abundantly clear last year that he will leave Red Bull if they decided to sack team advisor Helmut Marko, with whom he has an excellent relationship.

Rumors that Red Bull wanted to sack Marko emerged soon after reports emerged that he was allegedly involved in compromising Horner when the Briton was under investigation for alleged “inappropriate behavior” towards a female employee. Reports had claimed that it was Marko who had allegedly leaked the chats between the female employee and Horner.

Now, with Marko expected to stay at Red Bull, Verstappen may no longer want to leave for this reason, but for the fact that the team have massively dropped the ball since last year. Despite Verstappen’s repeated complaints last season that the problem was with Red Bull’s cars, it seems that his concerns fell on deaf ears.

So, if Red Bull are unable to show any signs of improvement, Verstappen may indeed want to leave, and it seems that Horner may not come in his way either.