Former F1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya believes Max Verstappen will receive an offer from Aston Martin “he can’t refuse” next year.
Four-time world champion Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull, the team he has raced in since his debut for junior team Toro Rosso in 2015, until the end of the 2028 season.
Yet with Red Bull losing their sizable advantage from 2023 – when they won 21 out of 22 races – speculation is growing that Verstappen could leave the team before the end of his current deal.
Mercedes and Aston Martin, who poached design guru Adrian Newey from Red Bull last year, have been linked with a big-money move and ex-McLaren driver Montoya insists the Dutchman should consider a move to Aston in 2026.
“I think Max will get an offer he can’t refuse from Aston Martin,” Montoya, a seven-time race winner in F1, said.
“He might give Red Bull a chance for a year and a chance for Adrian [Newey] to start figuring it out. Adrian can’t do that immediately. It’s a new whole group and everyone needs to start working together.
“Are they [Aston Martin] going to be better than where they are [for] next year? For sure. But I don’t think they’re going to start winning a string of races.
“But if Red Bull struggles in year one [2026], then it wouldn’t surprise me if by race three Max has already signed with somebody else.
“If I was Max, I would go to Aston. Mercedes would be cool too, but Aston would be the logical choice having Adrian and Honda. Everything he has won with is there.”
As Montoya touched on, Verstappen has won all four world titles with Newey-designed cars, while Honda leave Red Bull at the end of the season to strike a new engine partnership with Aston in 2026, when new engine and chassis regulations come into force.
Montoya added that Verstappen joining Aston would likely spell the end of Fernando Alonso’s 25-year career in the sport.
“If Verstappen joined Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso will retire and become an ambassador for life for the company,” Montoya said, in partnership with Vision4Sport, where you can enquire about exclusive packages to the world’s best sporting events. “Fernando would be pissed off to a point, but it’s the right choice.
“If you take Lance [Stroll] out of the equation, then you lose Lawrence [Stroll]. And if you lose Lawrence, you lose everything. You lose Aston Martin, and then there’s no Max coming.
“If bringing Max would mean that Lawrence would have to sacrifice Lance, that would be the wrong choice for the team.
“If they forced Lawrence to do that. I think he would say, ‘Okay, here’s the team. Over to you. Let’s just sell the team, I’m not interested.’”
Verstappen trails championship leader Lando Norris by eight points heading into race three in Japan this weekend, where he will be joined by a new teammate in Yuki Tsunoda.
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