Will Buxton addresses backlash after fans accuse him of teasing Max Verstappen transfer

Will Buxton has broken his silence on the fan backlash claiming he teased a bombshell announcement that Max Verstappen was leaving Red Bull.

The Formula One 2026 summer break is nearly upon us and the rumour mill is already working at full speed.

With over half of the grid set to be out of contract at the end of the season, the coming months will likely see many of the big names linked with moves away from the current teams.

Among those already linked with a move is four-time champion Verstappen, who is reportedly considering his future at Red Bull, and in the sport as a whole, amid interest from several teams.

Initially, it was believed that Mercedes would be the most likely next destination for the Dutchman should he decide to leave his current team after a decade, but recent rumours have suggested that McLaren are now the frontrunners.

Rumours surrounding Verstappen's potential move to the Woking-based team ramped up this week, partly due to a social media post from motorsports journalist Buxton teasing that a major announcement was imminent.

"Hearing a big announcement is on the way before the end of the day. If it is what I think it is, it’s absolutely massive," he posted on X.

Two years prior, nearly word for word, Buxton made the same post hours before it was confirmed that Lewis Hamilton would leave Mercedes to join Ferrari, perhaps the biggest move in recent F1 history.

Alongside reports that an exit clause in Verstappen's Red Bull deal would soon be available to trigger, it's no surprise that fans and pundits began to speculate that news about the Dutchman's future could be about to drop.

However, hours after his initial post Buxton revealed that Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist had joined McLaren's Indycar team, with his teased announcement actually having zero relevance to Formula One.

And according to Buxton himself, he had no idea that potential Verstappen news was brewing in the background.

"I've heard there's going to be a massive announcement. What I didn't expect was for people to automatically assume it was about Max Verstappen," Buxton claimed on the Up to Speed podcast.

Clearly wise to Buxton's tactics, former British F1 driver David Coulthard slowly took off his glasses to glare at his podcast co-host.

"The hope was that it would get eyeballs on this massive announcement for Indycar," Buxton added.

Will Max Verstappen join McLaren in 2027?

Despite Buxton's announcement being completely unrelated to Verstappen or to F1 in general, it is still heavily rumoured that Verstappen could be a McLaren driver next year.

According to recent reports Verstappen is in the closing stages of a lengthy negotiation to make the move for the 2027 season, with a deal believed to be for three years said to be “imminent”.

READ MORE: When Max Verstappen can officially walk out of Red Bull as shock team 'holds talks' over signing him

If Verstappen does does end up signing for McLaren, it is widely believed that it would lead to a straight swap that would see current McLaren driver Oscar Piastri take the vacant Red Bull seat.

Both Piastri and McLaren CEO Zak Brown have since played down the rumours, but it appears that the links aren't going away anytime soon.