Juan Pablo Montoya believes Max Verstappen joining Aston Martin one day “wouldn’t be the most surprising thing in the world”, given his links to Honda and Adrian Newey.

Design legend Newey will be joining Aston Martin from Red Bull officially from early March, while Red Bull’s current power unit manufacturers will be making the factory switch to Aston Martin from the 2026 season.

Montoya: Max Verstappen to Aston Martin ‘wouldn’t be the most surprising thing’

A report earlier this week claimed Verstappen’s name was being used by Aston Martin to woo potential sponsors in a huge future move for the Red Bull driver, but a team spokesperson “categorically denied the story” – with both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll under contract for 2025 and 2026.

Verstappen is under contract at Red Bull until the end of 2028, too, but it is believed the reigning World Champion has performance-related clauses in his deal that would allow him to explore his options if Red Bull do not provide him with competitive enough machinery.

But if he fulfils his contract as planned, former Williams and McLaren driver Montoya believes that, come that time, there will be questions over whether Alonso will have retired from Formula 1 altogether, or if Stroll will “still want to race” himself.

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With that, and the existing links Verstappen will have with Aston Martin, he does not believe a move to the Silverstone-based team should be ruled out – even if that comes when his Red Bull contract expires.

“I don’t think Lance is as bad as people say it is,” Montoya told Instant Casino.

“He’s gotten better, but I’m not sure what’s the little bit that he’s missing or what he needs.

“I think the hard thing there is the point where Fernando will benefit from Adrian Newey’s involvement.

“If everything lines up well, Aston could be winning in ‘27 or ‘28, not before that. But by 2028, Fernando’s going to be 47/48. So, who’s going to be there? And by then, does Lance still want to race?

“It wouldn’t be the most surprising thing in the world if Max Verstappen joined Aston Martin, would it? Honda and Newey; they’d be pretty happy to have Max driving the car.”

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