Max Verstappen has confirmed he will remain with Red Bull Racing, though recent months have been rife with speculation about a possible move for the Dutchman. During that time, Stephen Knowles, Red Bull’s senior race strategy engineer, admitted he was unsure what to believe.
For over a month, rumours swirled about Max Verstappen potentially joining Mercedes. Some media outlets even claimed the Dutchman had already signed with the German team.

In the end, the Red Bull driver put the speculation to rest, confirming he will stay with his current team also in 2026.

Verstappen Hungary

Max Verstappen in Hungary

Was there any doubt within Red Bull about Verstappen’s future?

In the Inside Line podcast of the BBC, Knowles was asked if he was tired of all the rumors. His response was: ”No, I don’t roll my eyes at all. It’s difficult to know what is smoke and what is fire with this sort of thing.”

”Loads of conversations happen in the paddock and some are hypothetical, some actually have some substance behind them and you never quite know whether hypothetical conversation has been spun to a point that it’s now being purported to be fact or not.”

”It’s tricky to know how to trust all of it but if a story keeps popping up there’s probably something behind it. I mean when Flavio (Briatore) came back into the sport I didn’t think there was any chance that was ever going to happen again, and yet here he is. So it clearly wasn’t that ridiculous.”

Knowles was then reminded that ‘the crazier the rumors are, the quicker they could be true’. He finally replied: ”Exactly. And it does move very quickly. It’s amazing how quickly the narrative moves on from something, like pretty major changes. There’s always something, there’s always the next big story.”