The future of Max Verstappen is set to dominate the discourse in Formula 1 with uncertainly surrounding his time at Red Bull Racing and Karun Chandhok has predicted what he thinks he’ll do over the next three years.
Max Verstappen is already a triple world champion and unless McLaren or Ferrari make another huge stride forward, he should add a fourth title to his CV by the end of 2024.
Karun Chandhok was speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast and offered his thoughts on where the 26-year-old will end up.
Karun Chandhok makes three-year prediction for Max Verstappen’s F1 career
Red Bull have been in a position of dominance in Formula 1 right now after Verstappen pipped Lewis Hamilton to the title in 2021.
An Adrian Newey-led design team nailed the regulation in 2022 while Mercedes went backwards and are still struggling to catch up.
The 2023 season cemented the constructor’s reputation as one of Formula 1’s most successful teams, only missing out on a perfect campaign thanks to Carlos Sainz’s victory in Singapore.
However, things aren’t all going to plan behind the scenes at Red Bull.
Adrian Newey will leave at the start of 2025 and could end up joining Ferrari which would be a huge blow.
Max Verstappen is signed up to a long-term deal at Red Bull but Chandhok believes he’ll move on in the next three years.
The Dutchman doesn’t have the ambition to stay within Formula 1 for the next 10 years and have a prolonged career like Hamilton or Fernando Alonso.
However, he does want to win at all costs and Chandhok wonders if that might play a part in his thoughts for the next few seasons.
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Talking about the 26-year-old, future, Chandhok said: “It’s a really strange market and a really difficult one to read.
“Increasingly, I think Max [Verstappen] will stay at Red Bull for 2025, I think he will take 2026 off and have a year out, see what happens.
“And then in 2027, he could go anywhere, couldn’t he?
“He will go off, and he’s talked about having ambitions of doing Le Mans and other forms of racing, so I think he’ll do something in 2026, have a year off from F1, see who hits the ground running with the new regs.
“Lewis [Hamilton] would have done his two years at Ferrari, 2025, 2026, he could go to Ferrari in 2027, he could go to Mercedes in 2027, he could go back to Red Bull in 2027.
“I think that could happen.”
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Max Verstappen’s Red Bull future in its most precarious position
If Max Verstappen does end up leaving Red Bull in the next three years as Chandhok has predicted, it would have a huge impact on the rest of the Formula 1 grid.
Chandhok’s Sky colleague Harry Benjamin has gone a step further and suggested that Verstappen will definitely leave Red Bull with Carlos Sainz replacing him.
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has already been told how he’ll be viewed by the team’s fans if he manages to sign Verstappen.
It’s not a move that’s on the cars at the moment, with Toto Wolff pushing hardest to sign Verstappen.
While Verstappen and Red Bull are winning, even with unrest existing behind the scenes, it’s hard to see him making the leap and seeing if the grass is greener on the other side elsewhere in the paddock.
However, it would be fascinating to see what project he would take on in 2026 if Chandhok’s prediction of a one-year sabbatical is correct.
The post ‘Could happen’: Karun Chandhok makes three-year Max Verstappen prediction involving potential Ferrari move appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
