"Total nonsense": Max Verstappen's father rages at former Red Bull driver for talking about driver's exit clause

Max Verstappen's supposed exit clause for his contract with Red Bull has made the rounds of the F1 paddock over the past few days. With former Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos doubling down on such speculations, Max's father, Jos Verstappen, lashed out at such claims over on X (formerly Twitter) and shared his frustration for the world to see.

Verstappen has been a Red Bull man since his junior racing days. The Austrian giant gave him his first breakthrough with its B-team in 2015 and promoted him to the top gun in the subsequent year.

Over the years, the Verstappen-Red Bull partnership has become one of the most decorated in the history of F1, and many have laid eyes on the 2025 season with the possibility of such an alliance maturing even further. However, with the team's downturn in performance, rumours have spooled up in the paddock regarding the reigning champion's stay at the team, despite his contract running till 2028.

But, according to Doornbos, the 27-year-old seemingly has an exit clause in his contract, which he was assured of as he told Racing News 365:

"The other clause stipulates that Verstappen can leave if Red Bull is not in the top three constructors. I know that, it's 100% sure of it. Because if a team can't deliver anymore, then a driver can't deliver anymore."

However, stumbling across another such statement, Jos Verstappen sparked up into flames and lashed back at such claims, as he wrote:

"They all think they know everything. They just shout something without any basis. And Racing News 365 just writes down everything. This has nothing to do with news. Total nonsense."

The question over Verstappen's tenure at the Milton Keynes-based squad was a hot topic in the Austrian GP paddock.

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Max Verstappen is tired of the speculations looming around his contract with Red Bull

Max Verstappen (L) and Christian Horner (R) at the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna - Source: Getty

Max Verstappen has won two races in the 2025 season so far. He is one of the four drivers to achieve this feat, but the championship is still headed by McLaren's Oscar Piastri as the Aussie driver has won five Grand Prix in the first half of the 2025 calendar.

With his retirement at the Austrian GP, the Dutchman is not in a strong position to mount a championship bid as his deficit has already grown to 61 points over the past race weekend. But, Red Bull supremo Christian Horner has trust in Verstappen, as he revealed at the Austrian GP weekend that his star driver is annoyed by suchrumourss, as he said on Sky Sports F1:

"It’s a lot of noise. I think Max [Verstappen] gets quite annoyed by it and we’re very clear with the contract that we have with Max until 2028, so anything is entirely speculative that is being said. But we tend not to pay too much attention to it."

Max Verstappen has amassed 155 points in the 11 race weekends held so far.