Max Verstappen has handled his next career phase poorly

Max Verstappen is at a pivotal point in his F1 career where the next call he makes is going to decide how the next phase goes. Every elite talent's career consists of two distinct phases.

The first phase of this career is often where the driver is picked up at a young age by one of the top teams. That's where he achieves his early success and starts building a foundation for his legacy. Max Verstappen has done so admirably as his stint with Red Bull means that he's now a 4-time F1 champion.

There is, however, the second phase of your career, and that is where the team that the driver is affiliated with ends up going through a dip in form. This is precisely what Red Bull has been going through this season, and this is the time when Verstappen has to make the next call.

Many F1 legends in this century have struggled when it came to how they would approach that next stage of their careers. Both Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel failed in a disastrous manner when they made their moves after their early success. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, was brilliant when it came to it, and his move to Mercedes ended up being legacy-defining.

If we talk about Max Verstappen and how he's gone about handling the second stage of his career, it has been poor until now.

Publicly negotiating with two teams

Max Verstappen is not sure about his future, that bit is quite clear for anyone willing to recognize how he's going about things. By now, after multiple reports and multiple claims being made, it is quite clear that the driver is talking to Mercedes as well as he tries to make a clear call about his future.

When a driver is publicly negotiating with two different teams about his future and doing so in a manner that neither of them is actually confident if they would end up having his service, it's just not a good look.

At this stage, for a team like Red Bull, everything is in limbo, where it's not sure what is going to be its next move. At the same time, we have Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who has been forced to keep two promising drivers on standby, as Max Verstappen has not made a call on whether he wants to join.

The problem with all of this is that it shows a lack of conviction either way. He's not confident that Red Bull is the team with which he can achieve success. At the same time, he's not confident enough to jump to Mercedes either.

In all of this, even when the driver takes a final call, it's not going to be one in which he's 100% confident, and that's just not how to make calls about your F1 future.

To add to this, after spending more than a decade with Red Bull, being in public discussion with a team that was the arch rival for so long is also not going to be the best look for the long-term relationship that had been built between the two parties.

Max Verstappen has forced himself into a corner where both moves are gambles

By being this public in how he's gone about his negotiations, he's forced himself into a corner. Now, if this time around he doesn't sign with Toto Wolff and go to Mercedes, this would be the second year in a row where he's made that call. At the same time, if he stays at Red Bull, the concerns with the team's rebuild are going to continue to be there, as the process takes time.

If Max Verstappen goes to Mercedes, it is a gamble for sure because he would be committing long-term to the German team. What if the team has the best power unit but there's a serious issue with the car? In that case McLaren would once again be the benchmark in F1. What does Verstappen do then? He is still gambling on a team that has struggled for aerodynamic brilliance in the last 4 years.

At the same time, if he sticks with Red Bull, it does mean that the door to Mercedes might be closed for a while because now Toto Wolff would be investing his energy in the George Russell-Kimi Antonelli project, especially as he has been getting played along for two seasons now. If the German team nails the regulations, Verstappen would be missing out in 2026.

There's a better and more patient way to approach this

If we're criticizing Max Verstappen and his approach, the key question that one would ask here is how differently he could have approached the entire situation. The answer to that is quite simple, and it lies in the fact that Verstappen, and arguably his management team, has been very impatient in the way they've gone about his career.

As soon as the Red Bull car started struggling, the panic set in within his management. The chats with Toto Wolff are not a bad thing, but the problem becomes when you make them public. You could chat with the Austrian and see what his plans are and then assess your situation.

This is the first season since 2020 that Max Verstappen arguably doesn't have a car to contest for the championship. At the same time, we're entering a new era in 2026 where anything could happen. Mercedes could have the best power unit and be the best team, or it might not. We could have McLaren continuing to dominate, or we could have Aston Martin finally fulfillingthe promise.

The best moment to take a call on where teams stack up for the next regulations is after the first race of the season in 2026. For Max Verstappen, that should have ideally been the best time when he looked at who the next big contender is and then went with them.

Arguably the better way to approach the entire situation is by staying patient and see out 2025. Start the 2026 F1 season and see how the teams stack up. Be it Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin, Mercedes or any other team, whichever team is strong, the driver could have approached them and it's hard to see any of them say no to a Max Verstappen.

Right now, he's boxed into a scenario where he either ends up at Mercedes for the long haul, or stays with Red Bull and arguably closes the door to the German team.

The gamble could potentially pay off

In Max Verstappen's case, the gamble could potentially pay off for sure. If he goes to Mercedes and the German team is on the verge of another dominant run then he's nailed the timing. In that case, everything works out. The flip side however is what makes everything a bit of a concern.

There are many drivers who have had a brilliant run with the first team that they're a part of, only to see their career never reach the same height. One would hope whatever decision the driver and his management make, it's made with due consideration of what could potentially be on the table in both scenarios.