Max Verstappen Reflects on Red Bull Struggles Amid Future Speculation
Sep.20 - Max Verstappen freely admits that the direction of his Formula 1 career is "up in the air" at the moment.
Amid Red Bull's performance decline, off the back of internal turmoil and scandals and the departure of key team members, the triple world champion is being linked with potential moves for 2026 to Mercedes or Aston Martin.
As Verstappen sat down with reporter Mara Sangiorgio at the Singapore GP, the Sky Italia host asked Verstappen if he is finding his experience in 2024 as "strange".
"It's a season that is testing us," the Dutchman responded.
"Obviously it started out pretty well, but I always prepare myself not to have massive expectations. I never thought it would be the same as last year, but I didn't know it would change quite so drastically.
"It's time to keep calm and work together with the team to do a better job."
He answered diplomatically when asked what impact Adrian Newey's departure has had.
"People always talk about it," said Verstappen, "but I prefer to look to the future. You can try to think about what is different but it won't change the situation. Instead we have to look forward and learn how to become better."
Singapore was the only race Red Bull didn't win in 2023, and the 26-year-old admits that he "certainly wouldn't bet on us winning here" on Sunday.
So if this new failure to win grands prix continues, could he be tempted to make a switch to Mercedes - or especially Aston Martin, if Newey asks him to follow his lead with a move to the Silverstone based team?
"People talk about these things a lot more than I do," Verstappen answered. "I'm very relaxed, I just think about driving and trying to understand my problems and improve. Then I go home and live my life.
"I'm quite relaxed about the future. For me it's very simple, I enjoy what I do and as long as I enjoy it I'll stay here and continue to drive in F1. If I want to go somewhere else, I'll go somewhere else. But at the moment it's not in my head."
However, it does seem to be on the mind of his father Jos, who has reportedly even shaken hands with Toto Wolff on a potential move to Mercedes for 2026.
That would require the existence of the famously-rumoured 'exit clauses' in Verstappen's Red Bull contract through 2028.
"Maybe yes, maybe no," Verstappen smiled when asked if the clauses really exist. "As I said, I'm not thinking about this at the moment, because there are so many things I want to try to understand and do better this year, not in the years to come."
He admits that he could be offered attractive deals by rival teams in order to get back in a winning car. "Everyone in the paddock wants to win, so you can very easily switch from one side to another over the years.
"But I don't want my career to be like that. I don't want to be part of four or five teams. I want to build a long and stable and nice relationship with everyone in the team and feel at home. Changing teams too often is not nice for me.
"It's also something I don't want to do at this stage of my career," said Verstappen. "My next step, if there is one, will be my last step. But the next step could also be renewing with this team.
"Everything is up in the air at the moment."
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Panic, what panic. History books will probably reflect he won the 2024 WDC no problem, in which case why would he be stressing.
F1 titles seem to go batches these days so it'll be all about winning several titles then moving onto the team that's most likely to nail the next batch, that team well and it's probably Mercedes.