Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher believes that Alpine could be a potential destination for Max Verstappen after securing Mercedes power units for the 2026 season. The Dutchman’s future at Red Bull has been questioned following a challenging start to the 2025 campaign.

Verstappen went into the season with aspirations of matching Michael Schumacher’s record of five straight Drivers’ Championship titles, but the 27-year-old is already eight points behind leader Lando Norris, and Red Bull are trending in the wrong direction. The Bahrain Grand Prix was a turning point in that journey. After winning in miraculous circumstances in Japan, Verstappen was only able to qualify seventh and improved marginally to sixth at the chequered flag following a last-lap pass on Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

After the race, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admitted that the team have genuine concerns about losing their star driver for the 2026 campaign, should Christian Horner’s squad fail to solve the issues facing the RB21.

Should he decide to leave Milton Keynes, Verstappen has several options. Mercedes have been heavily linked with the 27-year-old in the past, while Aston Martin are reportedly willing to stump up £1billion to lure him away from Red Bull. However, according to Schumacher, Alpine shouldn’t be ruled out as a potential destination, either.

“The team that we keep forgetting, but that certainly plays a role in the whole thing… Alpine!” Schumacher explained to the Backstage Boxengasse podcast. “Flavio Briatore has purchased Mercedes engines for his team next year.

“And in the meantime, look at Pierre Gasly last weekend.” Schumacher went on to add: “The car can’t be that bad. Add to that an extra 30 horsepower from the Mercedes engine… I don’t want to leave that team out of consideration either.”

The sway of a Mercedes power unit should not be underestimated. The Silver Arrows’ engine offering powered McLaren to the Constructors’ Championship title in 2024 and looks set to do so again this year, and the team are making positive noises about their latest project for 2026.

“They’ve lost some people from Mercedes,” Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz explained last year. “They’ve lost Loic Serra to Ferrari. But they are having the same kind of feelings about the 2026 power unit, which is so different, as they had about the 2014 power unit.

“As Toto Wolff and James Allison say out of Brixworth, the noise is that they’re feeling the same kind of gains that they had when they swept the board under a new power unit regulation in 2014, as they will for 2026.”