After a fresh report linked Max Verstappen to Aston Martin, Jacques Villeneuve has warned the four-time champ that wins come with teams like Ferrari and Mercedes, “not with Aston Martin”.

Although Verstappen has a long-term Red Bull contract, one that runs through to 2028, he spent a large part of the F1 2024 season fielding questions about a potential move to Mercedes.

Should Max Verstappen swap Red Bull for Aston Martin?

While that didn’t materialise, the Dutchman committed to Red Bull with Mercedes signing Kimi Antonelli, the first rumour of 2025 has already emerged with the Daily Mail claiming Aston Martin’s managing director of commercial and marketing Jefferson Slack has been wooing potential sponsors by claiming four-time F1 champ Verstappen is set to join the team.

The report, which has been “categorically denied” by Aston Martin, adds that Slack is ‘going around’ telling sponsors that ‘Max is going to be joining Aston Martin’ in a deal worth ‘£1billion’.

One F1 personality who cannot see it happening is 1997 World Champion Villeneuve.

Debating the possibility of 43-year-old Fernando Alonso quitting Aston Martin and Formula 1 at the end of this season, he believes Aston Martin will need someone who is “very strong mentally and hard-headed” to replace the double World Champion.

But when it comes to Verstappen being that person, Villeneuve told Action Network: “Max Verstappen would be more like, what’s my next step? You win with Ferrari, you win with Mercedes not with Aston Martin. Like Lewis Hamilton, he wants to win.”

The Canadian, who won the World title with Williams in 1997, believes the Aston Martin project is still a long-term one despite the team signing design guru Adrian Newey.

He joins the Silverstone team from Red Bull in March but has already made it clear his focus is on 2026’s all-new cars.

Villeneuve reckons turning Aston Martin, who last year were P5 in the Constructors’ Championship without a single podium in the team’s results, into race winners, never mind championship contenders, will take time.

“Aston Martin themselves know it will all take time,” he explained.

“I’m talking about the fans, not the team. The fans put two and two together and they make six. The expectation is they have signed Adrian Newey and they can now start winning.

“It takes time to build the people around you. It takes time to design a car. It takes time to do everything. So, 2025 is not the year.

“It doesn’t happen like that. Internally, they know. The problem is external.

“Part of the problem is that half of the media is Instagram media. It’s not proper media, not proper journalists. And there’s less and less proper journalists.

“Right now, it’s anyone who wakes up, writes a blog, and he’s a journalist. And those are the ones who really don’t actually understand it. They’re more like journalist fans.

“Those are the ones who will build up false expectations and do the damage. That’s all. But internally, they know.

“Alonso knows what he needs to do now to show that he’s still a step above. Like he did when he was at Ferrari and Ferrari wasn’t a winning car. Like he did at McLaren, when the McLaren was a dog, had an awful engine, and he still managed to fight like a madman. It was impressive.

“If he keeps doing that, then they’ll keep him. Because that means the day the car can win, he’s there.”

Although Aston Martin fought for podiums and even came close to winning races in 2023, the results slumped last season with the team falling away from the top four with just 98 points on the board.