Max Verstappen talks about Red Bull handling the situation well enough, as he answers more on his future related questions.
Red Bull has been embroiled in a public slugfest situation since the winter of the 2024 F1 season. The supposed ‘internal’ fight is out in the open and Christian Horner faced allegations that no boss would wish to hear in their time as a head.
A female employee laid charges on him which he was cleared off but the matter is far from being closed. It has opened up a whole new chapter especially bringing in light the internal power tussle involving Horner and Helmut Marko with Adrian Newey in it too.
This fight escalated after the statements made by Jos Verstappen, which raised question marks over Max’s future with Red Bull too. The Dutchman was quite public about his support for Marko, as he wants the core team to stick together for success.
He has insisted on keeping the key players at Red Bull without naming them. As of now, he thinks the team has handled the situation well especially the mechanics and engineers, who have to focus on the racing aspect rather than the management troubles.
“We all want the same,” said Verstappen to media in Australia. “We want to just perform on track. So that’s what we want to focus on as a team. The problem is that there’s not only within the team but from outside, there’s a lot of speculation and that is something that I cannot control.
“The only thing you can control is, of course, focus all on the same direction within the team, and I feel that is what we are doing. From my side…I don’t want to always be too involved with these kind of things. Because at the end of the day I’m the driver and I’m here to look at the performance side of things.
“That’s what I’m hired for. But from what I know everything is handled in the right way. I’m not going into any further details from that side because I don’t know more than that. And I also don’t want to know because that’s not my job or my task within the team,” summed up Verstappen, who added that he has no problem in switching off from F1.
He was asked how he balances the racing and the outside shenanigans. “Not for me because I either easily switch on and off from F1,” continued Verstappen. “I don’t really think about F1 anyway too much when I leave the paddock. I know what I have to do but I also know with so many races in a year, it is very important to also just come home and think about other stuff and be busy working on other projects of mine where I have lot of passion for.
“For me at least that how it works, for every driver it is a little bit different but for me, so far, of course with the things that have been going on, it is very easy to jump back in the car and perform,” summed up Verstappen, whose future with Red Bull is now a continuous topic for the media and also the fans to discuss.
He has a deal in place to race until the 2028 F1 season, but there is always an escape clause to leave early. Verstappen intends to stay but as said above, the Dutchman has insistence that the ‘core team’ stays together and no one leaves.
“That’s why I signed the deal in the first place,” said Verstappen. “As I have said before, I am happy within the team and of course it is important that we keep the key players in the team for a longer period of time because that is where the performance is as well. At the end of the day it is performance business, it is same as if I didn’t perform I wouldn’t be sitting here. I know how that works.
“With the deal in place, that is also my intention as well to be here in the end. Of course it would be a great story for me personally also to just see out till the end because for me also, been part of one family and one team. For me, it is a second family. In a family there might some times be..I would say not disagreements, because in family you cannot choose your family but you can choose friends.
“Honestly, for me, its been the same, we just focus on the performance, like I said before, of course I would like the chat to be a little bit more about the great car that we have and hopefully that would come soon,” summed up Verstappen, who also noted about keeping the key people in ‘same roles’ that they are in.
Amid such chatter, Mercedes F1 chief Toto Wolff had kind words for Verstappen. The Dutchman wasn’t surprised considering that they need to find a replacement for Lewis Hamilton, but he is not dwelling too much on it as 2028 is too far ahead to think.
“I can understand (why Wolff said he is interested),” started Verstappen. “It doesn’t have any impact on me of what I would do or whatever, but I mean, it’s always nice to hear that. But of course, Toto and I, we had our little moments, but that’s normal between two teams as well, battling, I guess, for challenges, but the respect has always been there.
“But yeah, from my side, it doesn’t change anything. No, I don’t know. I don’t know what after 2028 happens. I don’t know if I’m going to stay in F1 or if I’m going to continue, maybe sign a new deal. I don’t know that yet,” summed up Verstappen, whose escape clause of ‘Marko’ was reported widely this week.
Media wrote about Verstappen having a clause that if Marko leaves, he can too. When asked about his clause, Sergio Perez said he had none. “I don’t have that clause,” he said. “I don’t know what clause Max has in his contract. I think it’s best you ask him. I think Max, as far as I know, has a contract with the team and is fully committed with the team.
“The rest, I think it’s not for me to comment. It’s nothing to do with me. I’m focusing on my decisions, on what I have to do. And I think for us to be talking about other drivers when we don’t know any facts, I don’t see any point to do so. I think the team is in a very strong position because, I mean, with the results we’re currently having, the harmony that there is in the team, I think to achieve that it just takes a lot of years probably.
“And right now the dynamics, everyone in the team is working really well together. The whole engineering group is really united. And you can see that on track and how efficient we’ve been in the last year. So I think I don’t see any reason to change it. And it will obviously be a blow for the team if Max were to leave,” summed up Perez.
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Here’s Christian Horner baring it all
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