JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Max Verstappen refused to entertain suggestions he could walk away from Red Bull at the end of this year, insisting he is only focused on improving his car ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Following Verstappen’s sixth place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said there is “great concern” the four-time world champion could leave the team.
Earlier this year, Marko confirmed the existence of a performance clause in Verstappen’s contract, which could provide the 27-year-old an exit from Red Bull before his current deal expires at the end of 2028.
Ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Verstappen was asked about his future and the potential to join another of F1’s top teams.
“A lot of people are talking about it [my future] except me,” Verstappen told reporters on Thursday.
“Like I said before, I just want to focus on my car, work with the people in the team — that is the only thing I am thinking about in Formula 1 at the moment. I am very relaxed.”
When asked if he was considering leaving the team by F1 commentator David Croft, Verstappen responded: “You focus on commentating, I’ll focus on driving and we don’t need to worry about any other scenarios.”
Rumours of a Verstappen exit gained momentum after the Bahrain Grand Prix when his manager, Raymond Vermeulen, was spotted in a heated conversation with Marko after the race.
Alongside a lack of performance, Red Bull experienced issues during its pit stops in Sunday’s race, including a problem with the traffic light system that tells the driver when it is safe to leave the pit box after all four tyres are changed.
Verstappen said the multiple issues combined to create a level of frustration within the team, but denied there was anything unusual about the conversation between Vermeulen and Marko.
“To my knowledge, I think they were having just a conversation about everything, which I think is allowed,” he added. “If someone, of course, picks up on it, people can always see it in their own way, right, how people are discussing things?
“But I think we were all left frustrated with the result and the things that went wrong in the race, and I think that’s where my manager, Raymond, and Helmut spoke about, and even Christian [Horner, team principal] came along as well.
“So they all had a conversation. I think that should be allowed. We all care at the end of the day. We care about the team, we care about the people, we care about results. I think that’s quite normal.”
Verstappen is eight points adrift of championship leader Lando Norris after four races, largely thanks to his surprise victory at the Japanese Grand Prix. However, he stressed that he was not thinking about the possibility of securing a fifth straight title this early in the season.
“I’m not thinking about that,” he added. “I just go race by race and hopefully it will be better here than Bahrain if we can get in the middle of the two [performances in Japan and Bahrain], we can be happy with that.
“Then we just move on, and the rest is out of my hands anyway. I think we are not the quickest, so naturally it is very tough to fight for a championship, but then it’s still a very long road.
“This time last year at round five it was all looking great and we all know how the season ended up, so I’m hopeful that we can still improve things but we will see what we get.”
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