Toto may have fight for Max's services for 27 or 28 if RBR/Ford stumble in 26

[John S]

Audi making noises about having Verstappen in their car.

However will Audi's new car/engine show they are ready for the best in the field?

https://racingnews365.com/audi-desire-major-f1-signing-we-want-max-verstappen

[Jericoke]

It's easy for a top driver to go to the 'clearly best' team.

I have more respect for drivers who make an effort to 'build' a team.  Schumacher was central to Ferrari becoming Ferrari again.  It's possible that Todt could have rebuilt the team into a powerhouse without Schumacher, but honestly, I feel that Ferrari might've given up on F1 if they hadn't succeeded, and I don't know if they'd have succeeded without him.

Villeneuve going to BAR was also admirable.  Maybe Williams would come back, maybe they wouldn't.  Building a new team from scratch might've 'wasted' his best years, but his legacy is the Mercedes team that won a ton of championships, so a great contribution to F1.

Even Hamilton, going to Mercedes was a risk.  He wasn't looking to build something though, he could see that Mercedes was on the verge of something, just as McLaren was on the verge of collapse.  I think he just knew things that we fans didn't.

Verstappen talks about wanting challenges, what's a bigger challenge than turning an F1 team from literally nothing into a championship winner?

Why move to a successful Audi/Cadillac/Whatever?  If Max wants a challenge, buy into Alpine.  Become a driver/owner and set some real F1 history.  (Or maybe finally force Red Bull to divest of Racing Bulls.  If the Verstappens want to run a team so badly, why not give them a team to run?)