ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Max Verstappen’s decision to sign a new Red Bull contract through to the end of 2030 has put an end to one of the biggest Formula 1 storylines this year.Red Bull announced on Thursday that Verstappen, 28, had agreed a new deal, extending the four-time world champion’s stint at the team that started back in 2016.Verstappen’s previous deal ran through to the end of 2028, yet he was subject to persistent links to a possible move away, be it to Mercedes, McLaren or — in the early part of this year — from F1 altogether, given his dissatisfaction with the new cars.So why did Verstappen decide to stay put? How close did he get to joining another team or leaving F1 altogether? And what’s different in this deal compared to his old one?Here are the key answers in the wake of Verstappen’s new Red Bull deal.Why did Verstappen choose to stay at Red Bull?Verstappen used the word “family” on multiple occasions when talking about his relationship to Red Bull on Thursday. The team is all that he has ever known in F1, and it has been the environment in which he has thrived. Beyond all the on-track success, the race and title wins, he has enjoyed working with the people around him.A lot has changed at Red Bull in recent years. A lot of the key figures involved in Verstappen’s first title triumphs departed the team, and GianPiero Lambiase, his race engineer who is one of the most vital ‘pillars’ to the Dutchman, is set to join McLaren in the next 18 months.Verstappen said there had been “very open discussions” with Red Bull about its plans and expressed his faith in the roadmap. “Yes, people have left, but at the same time you’re looking at new talent and bringing other people in,” Verstappen said. “That’s what we’re doing.”Before Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull, died in 2022, Verstappen told him that he planned to see out his F1 career at the team. It’s a fact that still rings true. “There’s still a lot of years ahead, but that’s still the target,” said Verstappen.Red Bull is the only team Verstappen has known in F1 (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)Seeing out his entire F1 career in a Red Bull family where he feels comfortable and, importantly, he also has allowances to explore other avenues that excite him, particularly his GT racing exploits, would be ideal for Verstappen.But what he’ll really need to stay completely happy is a quick car. Red Bull has struggled to challenge at the very front for much of this year, arguably only giving Verstappen one chance, in Austria, to even fight for victory.Yet Verstappen has faith in Red Bull to get back into championship contention, a belief that has not been shaken by the start of this year.“I have the belief in the people — that we can get back to the top,” Verstappen said. “Time will tell. That’s what we are targeting. I still want to win races. I’m hungry to win more.”And what about quitting F1 altogether?This was a very real possibility. As Verstappen pointed out, “I think I was closer to retiring than changing teams.”It’s no secret that the Dutchman has been unhappy with this set of technical regulations. After the opening races this season, Verstappen told Laurent Mekies, “Don’t come to me with any kind of questions about the future because I don’t even know if I want to stay,” he recalled Thursday with a laugh.“We always kept it very open,” Verstappen continued. “I love racing, and I think I had a lot of very good discussions with F1, but also with the FIA, and I think we are, let’s say, slowly working towards something that becomes better and better.”Verstappen still isn’t thrilled with the current state of F1. He’s reached a point where he has adapted and accepted “the situation that I think we’re all in, and just trying to make the best of that.” But as he pointed out, extending his contract to 2030 puts him in another era of technical regulations, one in which there have been suggestions that the sport could return to V8 engines as soon as 2030.“This is still the pinnacle of motorsport,” he later said. “So I still want to be here.”Did Verstappen consider other teams?Over the years, there have been rumblings that Verstappen’s camp was speaking to other teams, the most recent being Mercedes last season and McLaren this year. George Russell noted during Thursday’s FIA news conference that “It was always very clear from within Mercedes what the reality was over these past couple of years” and how this is the nature of F1.“Drivers talk with different teams, teams talk with different drivers. Everyone has to just see what their cards are.”Verstappen ultimately didn’t feel the need to switch to a rival. Red Bull is his family, something he reiterated numerous times on Thursday at Zandvoort.“I think it would be a great story if that would be possible: being picked up by Red Bull and finishing your career within one team,” Verstappen said.Sometimes, drivers have wanted a new challenge and opted to switch teams. But for the Dutchman, he doesn’t “feel the need to change just to change, and I don’t necessarily need to drive in another color.” He joked that his “favorite color is blue, so that helps,” a nod to Red Bull’s main color.“If I feel well within the team here, why should I?” Verstappen said at one point. “Because I know that they do everything for me, and they know that I do everything for them once I’m on the track and trying to get the results.”How serious were the McLaren rumors?Mercedes may have been the subject of the most consistent links to Verstappen in recent years, but it was McLaren that became the team in the headlines about his future earlier this season.It emerged ahead of the Austrian GP weekend that Verstappen’s management had engaged in a conversation with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown to discuss the future.Brown said at Silverstone that the talks “didn’t go anywhere” given he has existing drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri under long-term contracts. But the fact they even took place looked to be a sign that Verstappen was chatting to McLaren as an option was of interest.It is believed that the McLaren talks didn’t progress very far (Giuseppe CACACE / AFP via Getty Images)It wasn’t the first time there had been some engagement between the Verstappen camp and McLaren. It’s wise and natural for drivers and teams to gauge the lay of the land of what the coming years may look like with the driver market.Sources have indicated to The Athletic, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect relationships, that there was never a serious push for a Verstappen/McLaren link-up for 2027.McLaren was always clear publicly that it had both Norris and Piastri locked in, while Verstappen said he never felt the desire to explore alternatives. Both sides are happy with where they’re at, yet that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth having a conversation to get a read on each other’s plans.What does his contract entail?Exit clauses within Verstappen’s contract have been a hot topic in recent years whenever the rumor mill began heating up on whether he would remain with Red Bull. Performance-related criteria would have allowed him to potentially leave before the end of his contract if he was outside a certain position in the drivers’ championship — believed this year to be the top two — at a trigger point in the season.Verstappen declined to comment on whether the new deal contained any exit clauses when asked at the FIA news conference on Thursday. “I’ve never disclosed anything in my contract,” he said. “So yeah, that stays the same.”But seated next to him was former Red Bull teammate and current Cadillac driver Sergio Pérez, who had a smile on his face, trying to convince Verstappen to tell the room more, throwing in “for me!” Verstappen laughed, saying, “You know, Checo, I’ll tell you after.”The Dutchman and Red Bull have been tight-lipped about the details of the deal. Salary and financial details weren’t publicly shared. Still, it is likely Verstappen enjoyed a decent uplift compared to the terms of his previous contract, announced in early 2022, back when he was a one-time world champion and F1 as a whole was not quite the commercial beast it is today.Verstappen and Red Bull have yet to record a win this season (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)The presence of performance-related clauses is common in F1 driver contracts nowadays, making it logical that they would remain in some form for Verstappen’s new deal. Yet such is the strength of their relationship, as both sides stressed on Thursday, that Verstappen and Red Bull would hope they never need to be triggered.Even when asked in general if the contract was different from the previous one, Mekies said, “We are here today telling you guys that we are committing to each other, the team and Max, to the end of 2030. I think that the substance, everything else, is our business.”What does this confirmation mean for Red Bull?Mekies described the deal as being a “demonstration of trust” by Verstappen in Red Bull. Despite the moments of justified frustration over the performance of the car or the reliability issues, there is still an underlying belief that this is the best place for him to be an F1 driver and to win the races and titles he covets.Had Red Bull lost Verstappen, the driver around whom its F1 efforts have largely revolved for the best part of the last decade, it would have been a huge blow. Not only does it have a driver who stands out as the greatest of his generation and one of the greatest of all time, but it also has an energizing force for the entire Red Bull team.There will of course be pressure on Red Bull to deliver a car that gives Verstappen the chance to do what he does best. But with him as the ‘north star’ guiding its efforts, the team has retained its biggest asset, which will help it to become a championship-winning team again.“It’s a massive stability element; it’s a massive ambition element,” said Mekies. “Everybody understands that everything else that you have settled is only with that single objective: to win.”