Max Verstappen says it is "clearly the intention" that he stays at Red Bull Racing all the way to the end of his current contract through 2028.
Amid rumours triple world champion Verstappen was flirting with a potential move to Mercedes or Aston Martin for 2026, Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko this week hinted that Oscar Piastri might be lured from McLaren.
"There’s a lot of hype going on," Marko smiled to Kleine Zeitung newspaper, referring to a war of words with title rivals McLaren and his claim that Piastri’s manager Mark Webber is urgently seeking Red Bull talks.
Marko played down his teasing words about talks with Webber.
"Mark Webber is simply back at the track more often now and we like to talk about old times," said the 81-year-old Austrian, referring to the former Red Bull driver.
As for Red Bull’s potential interest in Australian Piastri, Marko added: "As far as I know, he still has two years on his contract."
And Verstappen, 27, told AFP news agency in Mexico that he also sees himself staying put at his existing team for the time being.
"It’s true that we had some difficult moments, but I was more focused on trying to improve performance," said the Dutchman.
"The other teams have caught up. They did a very good job and understood their car. On our side, we had a very good year last year, then we tried to improve the car, which we managed to do, but not in all areas.
"That’s something we have to try to sort out for next year," Verstappen added.
He denies that he is losing faith in Red Bull.
"For me, nothing has changed," he said. "I’m here, I want to perform well, I want to win and we want to get back to the top together. We want to win races again, which is something that hasn’t happened for a long time."
As for rumours that exit clauses would make it easy to leave Red Bull if he wanted to, Verstappen insisted that it is "clearly the intention" that he will stay.
"I have signed a long-term contract with the team and, in a perfect world, I will end up here.
"For me, the situation has never changed since I signed my contract."