Max Verstappen to Aston Martin is an inevitability, believes Juan Pablo Montoya, who suggested when the Dutch driver may switch allegiances.

Verstappen is under contract until the end of F1 2028, but that hasn’t stopped there being plenty of speculation that the four-time F1 World Champion may seek pastures new before the end of his deal.

Juan Pablo Montoya suggests when Max Verstappen may sign with Aston Martin

Last year, with Red Bull going through a tumultuous year on and off-track, Verstappen was linked with a possible move to Mercedes – the Brackley-based squad was seeking a successor for the departing Lewis Hamilton, and team boss Toto Wolff made his intentions clear as Verstappen didn’t quite shut down the possibility that he could move elsewhere.

But, eventually, the Dutch driver became clearer with his intentions to remain at Red Bull, and Mercedes signed promising youngster Kimi Antonelli – putting an end to that particular possibility for the time being.

A particularly interesting future destination for Verstappen, if he wanted to leave Red Bull, could thus be the Aston Martin team.

Under Lawrence Stroll, the former Force India squad has evolved into a workforce the match of any other team on the grid and, along with brand-new factory facilities and infrastructure including a state-of-the-art wind tunnel, has secured the services of Adrian Newey, Bob Bell, and Enrico Cardile to go along with those facilities.

With Honda also beginning its partnership with Aston Martin next season as Red Bull partners with Ford for its new Red Bull Powertrains (RBPT) enterprise, moving to Aston Martin would thus reunite Verstappen with Newey and Honda in a new team.

Former F1 Grand Prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya believes the switch will come, provided the path in 2026 shows Red Bull may be less competitive than Aston Martin – a team yet to win a race in its current guise.

“I think Max will get an offer he can’t refuse from Aston Martin,” Montoya told Vision4Sport.

“He might give Red Bull a chance for a year and a chance for Adrian to start figuring it out. Adrian can’t do that immediately. It’s a new whole group, and everyone needs to start working together.

“Are they going to be better than where they are next year? For sure. But I don’t think they’re going to start winning a string of races.”

The writing could be on the wall from very early next season if the RBPT power unit proves less than competitive, Montoya reckons, who said he would be going with Aston Martin over all others if the chance does arise.

“But if Red Bull struggles in year one, then it wouldn’t surprise me if by race three, Max has already signed with somebody else,” the Colombian said.

“If I were Max, I would go to Aston. Mercedes would be coo,l too, but Aston would be the logical choice, having Adrian and Honda. Everything he has won with is there.”

With Aston Martin’s line-up currently consisting of two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, son of team owner Lawrence, the opportunity to sign Verstappen would likely spell the end of Alonso’s driving career with the team, Montoya said.

“If Verstappen joined Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso will retire and become an ambassador for life for the company,” he said, pointing to how the team is intrinsic for Lance Stroll’s racing career.

“Fernando would be pissed off to a point, but it’s the right choice. If you take Lance out of the equation, then you lose Lawrence.

“And if you lose Lawrence, you lose everything. You lose Aston Martin, and then there’s no Max coming.

“If bringing Max would mean that Lawrence would have to sacrifice Lance, that would be the wrong choice for the team.

“If they forced Lawrence to do that. I think he would say, ‘Okay, here’s the team. Over to you. Let’s just sell the team, I’m not interested.’”