Audi has spent the first third of 2026 trying to look like a proper works team again: methodical, patient, not distracted by the paddock’s constant itch for a headline. So when Max Verstappen’s name inevitably landed on its doorstep amid Red Bull’s stuttering start to the new rules era, Mattia Binotto did what you’d expect from a man building a project rather than chasing a moment — he shut it down.
Speaking on F1’s *Beyond the Grid* podcast, Binotto insisted Audi isn’t in talks with Verstappen and, more tellingly, suggested it wouldn’t make much sense even if it could be. Not because Verstappen wouldn’t elevate any organisation he touches — he obviously would — but because Audi isn’t yet in a position to offer the one thing a driver of his level demands as a baseline: a car capable of winning.
“No, we are not. I’m not,” Binotto said when asked if Audi is in the frame. “And the reason why is I think we are not yet ready for it as a team.
“If Max would join, you need to offer him a platform which is a proper platform where he can fight for victories.”
It’s a refreshingly unglamorous answer in a sport that often confuses big names with big progress. Audi’s reality is that 2026 is still a foundation year, and foundations don’t get poured any quicker because a four-time world champion walks into the garage. If anything, that kind of signing can accelerate the noise before the substance is ready — the scrutiny, the internal pressure, the “why aren’t you winning yet?” questions that land on a team still building its processes and its technical depth.
That context matters because Verstappen’s future has been kicked back into the rumour mill with the season barely underway. Red Bull’s start has been difficult enough that his first podium didn’t arrive until Canada, the fifth race of the year. For a driver who’s spent much of the last few seasons operating in a different competitive universe, that’s the sort of shift that forces uncomfortable conversations — even if they’re only internal.
Verstappen hasn’t exactly tried to hide his feelings about the 2026 rules package either. In Montreal he reiterated his dislike of the current direction and warned he’ll weigh up his future in the sport if the proposed refinements to the 2027 engine regulations don’t go through. That’s not the language of a man casually browsing the market, but it *is* the language of someone putting parameters around what he’s willing to commit to long-term.
Contractually, Verstappen is tied to Red Bull until the end of 2028, yet the paddock has long treated that as a statement with an asterisk. Exit clauses are nothing new at the sharp end, and the current speculation centres on a performance-related trigger that could allow him to walk for 2027 if he’s outside the top two in the standings at the summer break next month.
On that front, the numbers are stark. Verstappen sits seventh in the championship, 45 points behind George Russell in second, with six races left before the break. Meanwhile, Mercedes has won every race so far in 2026 — exactly the kind of competitive landscape that keeps Verstappen’s name pinned to Toto Wolff’s noticeboard, whether Wolff admits it or not.
And yet Binotto’s point is the one the sport often skips past: a superstar signing only makes sense if the platform is ready. Audi, at least publicly, is talking like a team that doesn’t want to skip steps. Binotto even underlined he’s content with what Audi already has, confirming that Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg are on “long-term contracts”.
“Maybe it will be even not required in the future, because I’m so happy at the moment with the drivers we’ve got,” he said. “But at the moment, we’ve got long-term contracts with our drivers. I’m happy with the current situation.”
That’s as close as you’ll get to a team principal saying: we’re not playing fantasy football with our driver line-up just because the paddock is bored.
The timing of Binotto’s comments is no accident, either. Canada provided the latest flashpoint for Verstappen-watchers when his father, Jos Verstappen, was spotted in conversation with Wolff in the paddock. In another season it might’ve been dismissed as background noise; in this one, with Mercedes sweeping races and Red Bull looking mortal, it became oxygen for a story that doesn’t need much help to breathe.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies sought to damp it down, suggesting there was nothing more to it than two well-connected figures having a chat — and noting Verstappen had just been racing a Mercedes GT3 at the Nürburgring 24 Hours a week earlier. Mekies’ point was simple: in a paddock where everyone speaks to everyone, the camera doesn’t create the conversation, it only creates the narrative.
Wolff, for his part, already tried to kill the idea earlier this year, calling renewed Verstappen-to-Mercedes talk for 2027 “stupid” and stressing Mercedes “couldn’t be happier” with Russell and Kimi Antonelli on “long-term, multi-year contracts”. Russell’s situation does carry its own subplot — he’s believed to be on a one-plus-one signed in late 2025, with an extension tied to performance targets — but Russell has sounded confident he’ll tick the boxes.
Still, the Verstappen carousel keeps turning because the underlying ingredients are there: a champion who isn’t enjoying the new era, a dominant team that would improve with him even if it doesn’t *need* him, and rivals who know one decision could reshape the grid.
Audi, though, is offering a different message — not a denial born of negotiation tactics, but a statement of where it believes it is on the timeline. Binotto isn’t pretending Verstappen wouldn’t be attractive. He’s saying the hard part comes after the signature: delivering a car worthy of it.
In 2026, that’s the part Audi seems determined to earn the slow way.
