The stage is all set for papaya dominance at Hungaroring! With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s brilliant performance at the Qualifiers in Budapest, another race win is almost in the bag for McLaren. Sitting at the third spot on the World Championship table, the Woking outfit needs just 7 points to go past Ferrari. And then, Red Bull will have a target on their back, as McLaren does not seem to want to stop now. Being loyal to his team, Verstappen knows he cannot single-handedly ward off the attacks that Norris and Piastri’s duo is making at Red Bull every weekend.

Friday’s second free practice session was the first time Verstappen realized the McLarens’ speed. Lando Norris put in 24 laps during that session and led the rankings with an impressive lap time of 1:17.788. Making things worse for the Dutchman, both Norris and Piastri came on top of Verstappen at FP3 once again after doing 17 laps each. If this hadn’t rattled the reigning World Champion, then the McLaren duo’s performance at the Quali sure did. When Norris got a provisional pole, Yuki Tsunoda‘s crash prevented Max from going for a flying lap and thus, he will start Sunday’s race from the third spot now.

Given the speed of the MCL38, the task of surpassing them during the Hungarian GP might be too much for Max Verstappen. But the team’s scores are on the line and the Championship is at stake. On the other hand, his teammate Sergio Perez has had another awful Quali as he exited the run in Q1 itself. This means the job of saving Red Bull’s face is upon Verstappen’s shoulders. But he thinks others on his team need to share his responsibility.

“Maybe not everyone is on the same wavelength. I think maybe some people need to wake up a bit. It’s not all very bad, but if you want to be World Champion it has to be better than this,” Max said. Perhaps this is his warning to Red Bull that they need to step up and help Verstappen on the quest for an F1 title. If the Austrian outfit fails him on it, does that mean the reigning World Champion would be open to exit his contract with Red Bull to go to Mercedes?

Helmut Marko spills details on Max Verstappen’s possible Mercedes shift

At the start of 2025, Lewis Hamilton will leave a 12-year-long link to Mercedes and go to Ferrari. Thus, Toto Wolff’s army needs to find a replacement for the 104 Grand Prix winner soon. As per the Austrian, Max Verstappen is the best choice for his squad but the Dutchman’s current Red Bull contract will last till 2028. However, the RBR Chief Advisor Helmut Marko has weighed in on the possibility of losing his recruit to the Silver Arrows.

The octagenarian said, “You can’t force someone to stay somewhere because of a piece of paper“, indicating that there are ways for Max to go around his agreement with Red Bull if he wishes to. Given the current lack of performance from Red Bull and Sergio Perez’s failure to keep up, Verstappen might grow frustrated with his current team and decide to jump ship to Mercedes. And Toto Wolff has confirmed that the doors to his Stuttgart-based team are always open for the three-time World Championship winner. Even at his latest interview during the Hungarian GP weekend, Toto confirmed he wanted to sign Verstappen.

Considering how loyal the Dutchman is to his team, do you think he will become a Mercedes racer at some point in the future? Let us know in the comments below.