How Aston Martin F1 Team Could Be in Play for Verstappen

• It is said that Red Bull engineer Adrian Newey, driver Max Verstappen and even team advisor Helmut Marko could simply jump ship to Mercedes for 2025.

• The key to that equation, of course, would be Verstappen neatly replacing the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.

• But Aston Martin may also be making a bold bid to benefit from Red Bull's troubles.

Rumors are emerging that Aston Martin's main F1 sponsor, Saudi Arabian state-owned oil company Aramco, is shaping up to potentially take over the team.

The explosive development could even tie in with the ongoing Christian Horner affair at Red Bull, and explain in part why Red Bull is now desperate to call an internal ceasefire over the power struggle.

However, F1 media is likely to keep chasing the Horner story this weekend in Melbourne—site of the F1 Australian Grand Prix.

The German newspaper Bild claims one side of the Red Bull power struggle—51% owner Chalerm Yoovidhya—installed a spy at Red Bull's Austrian headquarters in Salzburg.

Elsewhere, it emerges that a so-called "Helmut Marko clause" in three-time champion Max Verstappen's F1 contract allows him to get out of his Red Bull deal if team advisor and long-time Verstappen backer Marko is ousted, was added after the initial signing, without Horner's knowledge.

The scandal and the unrest has clearly alienated Verstappen's influential father Jos. Red. bull engineer Adrian Newey, who is arguably the most respected technical brain in F1's entire history, is also said to be unhappy with the Horner/Red Bull situation.

It was said that Newey, Max Verstappen and even Marko could simply jump ship to Mercedes for 2025, with Verstappen neatly replacing the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.

But Aston Martin may also be making a bold bid to benefit from Red Bull's troubles.

Eurosport Italy reports that Lawrence Stroll, the current Aston Martin owner whose son Lance is struggling in Formula 1, may be interested in selling the Silverstone-based outfit to title sponsor Aramco.

If Verstappen and Newey were also part of the deal, it would almost certainly be more than lucrative.

Former F1 driver and current pundit Ralf Schumacher thinks simply firing Horner would be a much simpler solution to the current unrest than the current talk about a ceasefire.

"Max knows exactly what happened internally," Schumacher told Auto Bild when asked about the murky Horner affair. "He also knows that there is a great risk that Adrian Newey will soon have no desire to stay at Red Bull because of all the turmoil.

"Red Bull can do without him (Newey) least of all. But they could do without Horner."