David Coulthard has thrown himself into the middle of Formula 1's most expensive guessing game — where Max Verstappen drives next — and his answer is unambiguous. Speaking on the Up To Speed podcast on Tuesday, the 13-time grand prix winner argued that the reigning champion is not going anywhere because no rival outfit would let him be the driver he is.
Coulthard's reasoning leans on a piece of advice he says was given to him by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz before he joined the team as a driver in 2005. The message, Coulthard recalled, was a simple instruction: "Be yourself." That, in his view, is precisely what the modern incarnations of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes are no longer set up to offer a four-time world champion.
"Max will not be going anywhere because there's no other Formula 1 team" that would give him the same latitude, Coulthard said. He pointed to the corporate guard rails around the sport's other top constructors — manufacturer boards, sponsor obligations, brand managers — as the things Verstappen would have to negotiate every time he opened his mouth. At Red Bull, by contrast, the Dutchman has been allowed to swear at his engineers, walk out of press sessions and chase a Nordschleife race entry without anyone reaching for a press release.
The Scot doubled down on the second point. Verstappen's Nurburgring 24 Hours debut last weekend, where he led the race before a drive-shaft failure with three hours to go, is exactly the kind of side project Coulthard believes only Red Bull would tolerate from a contracted driver.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he's ambidextrous," Coulthard said of Verstappen. "He just seems to be good at" anything that involves four wheels. The implication was that an environment willing to bend around that breadth of interests is rare, and that Red Bull's particular culture, set in concrete by Mateschitz, is what locks Verstappen in.
The context matters because, on paper, the case for Verstappen leaving has rarely looked stronger. Red Bull are still chasing the front of the field with the new Red Bull-Ford powertrain, the team has lost a string of senior figures over the past 18 months, and Sky reporter Craig Slater has openly suggested Gianpiero Lambiase's mooted move to McLaren in 2028 makes a Verstappen exit more likely. Aston Martin remain in the rumour mill thanks to Honda. Mercedes are openly courting a generational name. Apple-money Cadillac will be a real team by then.
Coulthard's argument is that none of those addresses come with the freedom Verstappen takes for granted. McLaren, fighting to keep Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri happy at the same time, cannot be a one-driver team. Ferrari operate under a media weight Lewis Hamilton himself has called suffocating in 2026. Mercedes are still trying to manage the George Russell–Kimi Antonelli dynamic without it cracking.
For all the noise around Verstappen's contract, Coulthard's reading is that the most underrated clause in F1 is not money or competitiveness, but tone. Red Bull built itself around a founder who told drivers to be themselves and never edited that down. Until another paddock employer offers the same deal, Coulthard suggested, the champion has every reason to stay where he is.
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*Originally published on [News Formula One](https://newsformula.one/article/coulthard-verstappen-be-yourself-mateschitz-red-bull-stay-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
