Max Verstappen responds to Aston Martin’s ‘open door’ as Adrian Newey departure impact discussed

With Mike Krack keeping Aston Martin’s door “open” for Max Verstappen, the Dutch driver has responded to the team boss’ comments.

With speculation suggesting Max Verstappen is on the shopping list for Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll after successfully signing Adrian Newey to his team, the reigning F1 World Champion didn’t rule out considering the possibility at some point in his future.

Max Verstappen: An Aston Martin move is something to think about in the future

With Aston Martin building brand-new facilities at the former Jordan/Force India factory at Silverstone, along with a brand-new wind tunnel which will be the first truly new facility built since McLaren’s in 2004, Lawrence Stroll convinced Adrian Newey to join his team.

While Stroll’s efforts to lure away Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché and aero chief Enrico Balbo were not successful as they remained loyal to Christian Horner’s team, Newey’s departure for Aston Martin is a statement signing for the Canadian billionaire’s efforts to become an F1 championship winning team.

While the team currently boasts two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso alongside Lance Stroll, son of Lawrence, the possibility of signing F1’s brightest star in three-time F1 World Champion Max Verstappen – still at the height of his powers – suddenly appears more realistic than once considered possible.

After all, not only has Aston Martin now got Newey, a chief architect of all of Verstappen’s title-winning machines, but the team also switches to Honda power for the regulation changes in F1 2026 – Verstappen enjoys a strong relationship with the Japanese manufacturer, with whom he has won all of his titles.

Certainly, team boss Mike Krack didn’t rule out making a play for Verstappen at some point, as Italian publication AutoSprint has declared Verstappen a key target for Stroll – although the reigning World Champion is under contract with Red Bull until F1 2028.

“The door for Max Verstappen is always open, for everything,” Krack said in Baku on Thursday.

“I think when you manage to appoint Adrian Newey, it’s proof that the project is credible, that the whole vision of Lawrence is not only words, but it is really action that we can take confidence in as a team.

“This is not anymore an underdog like it used to be in the past, it’s a team that should be confident that it can do it.

“But then, also, you have a completely different approach with partners and the same for race drivers. So I think it opens a lot of doors for the future. ”

As for whether Verstappen is eager to have a look through that door, the 26-year-old didn’t shut down the possibility.

“I have other worries at the moment, that I’m paying a lot of attention to, that I’m working on,” he said. “So that is something maybe for the future that I think about but not now.”

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Seeing Newey depart for a new challenge with Aston Martin, with whom he starts work officially on March 1st, while still seeing out his Red Bull duties with the RB17 hypercar, Verstappen said he’s trying not to waste any mental energy on considering the loss to his team because “it’s not in my control”.

“I have other worries at the moment that I am busy with, and I try to fix and work on them with the team that I’m driving with – that’s where our focus goes,” he said.

“Adrian and I – we have a very good understanding.

“I sent him a message also after the news came out, even though, of course, I knew that it was coming.

“So I’m happy for him, it’s a new challenge.

“I always said I would have loved him to stay but, yeah, at some point, you can’t overturn these things, so then you’re just excited for people seeking new challenges.

“I also know that Lawrence, of course, is pushing flat out to make it a success with Aston Martin. So it’s quite understandable that he wants to have Adrian on his side.”

Asked whether Newey’s presence on a team makes that team more attractive for a driver, Verstappen considered his response carefully.

“I don’t know, I mean, I’ve worked with him so I know how he is as a person, and also what he can do,” he said.

“I think everyone would like to work with Adrian, I guess, in their career. So yeah, potentially.”

With Red Bull’s own performance having taken a dip through the middle section of this year’s championship, the fall beginning at the exact race Newey’s departure from the squad was confirmed, Verstappen cast doubt on the 65-year-old’s decision to step back having had any impact on the predicament the team currently finds itself in.

“I wouldn’t say so. It’s just that when it was announced, that’s where it started to go a little bit wrong for us,” he said.

“But I think it already started to go wrong for us a long time before, but we didn’t really see that at the time.

“So I personally don’t think it’s related. That is not to be negative towards Adrian or whatever, but I definitely don’t see it as something that is related, but it’s something that could turn over time.”

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