“If Max goes somewhere, obviously he wants to go to a team that is better than Red Bull, and there aren’t many,” Steiner explained. “They might not be where they want to be at the moment, but they’re still one of the four big teams.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The seats at Ferrari are filled. At Mercedes, I think they’ve already found the next Max Verstappen. So maybe they don’t need the real one right now,” Steiner added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steiner also addressed paddock rumors linking Verstappen to McLaren\u2014potentially in a straight swap involving Oscar Piastri moving to Red Bull\u2014but questioned whether moving to Woking represents a clear step forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Until a few races ago, we were asking if McLaren is genuinely better than Red Bull. Red Bull has one major advantage: they run their own works power unit under the new 2026 regulations, which is huge,” Steiner observed. “McLaren is doing well as a Mercedes customer, but that would be the only real possibility, and I don’t even know if that option truly exists.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The biggest question for Max is that if he moves, he only wants to go to the absolute best team available,” Steiner concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Formula 1 resumes track action August 21\u201323 at Circuit Zandvoort for the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix, featuring a reshuffled Red Bull lineup following Isack Hadjar’s injury<\/a>. GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/a><\/strong> is covering all activities live on-site with reporter Leonid Kliuev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steiner believes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/strong> has already proven himself as Mercedes’ next star driver, rendering a high-cost pursuit of Verstappen redundant for Toto Wolff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steiner points to Red Bull running its own works power unit<\/strong> under the 2026 technical regulations as a key advantage over customer teams like McLaren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ferrari<\/strong> (Leclerc\/Hamilton), McLaren<\/strong> (Norris\/Piastri), Williams<\/strong> (Albon\/Sainz), and Cadillac<\/strong> (P\u00e9rez\/Bottas) have confirmed driver pairings locked in for the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" G\u00fcnther Steiner stated that Mercedes has found a driver in Andrea Kimi Antonelli capable of filling the role intended for Max Verstappen, questioning the Dutchman’s realistic transfer options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020310900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Max Verstappen","42wp_featured_image_credits":"Gabriel L\u00f3pez\/Grande Pr\u00eamio","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[],"footnotes":"","42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,16],"42wp_author":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":928,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020310900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SI202507261011-1-1200x800.jpg\")
2026 Dutch Grand Prix \u2014 Session Schedule (Local Time \/ CEST)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Day<\/strong><\/td> Session<\/strong><\/td> Local Time (CEST)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead> Friday, August 21<\/strong><\/td> Free Practice 1<\/td> 12:30 \u2013 13:30<\/td><\/tr> Friday, August 21<\/strong><\/td> Sprint Qualifying<\/td> 16:30 \u2013 17:14<\/td><\/tr> Saturday, August 22<\/strong><\/td> Sprint Race<\/td> 12:00 \u2013 12:30<\/td><\/tr> Saturday, August 22<\/strong><\/td> Grand Prix Qualifying<\/td> 16:00 \u2013 17:00<\/td><\/tr> Sunday, August 23<\/strong><\/td> Grand Prix (72 Laps)<\/td> 15:00<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why does G\u00fcnther Steiner think Mercedes doesn’t need Max Verstappen?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What advantage does Red Bull have according to Steiner?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Which teams are fully locked in with their driver lineups?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n