As the youngest ever drive to compete in Formula 1, the youngest ever race winner and the youngest driver to reach 150 grands prix, Max Verstappen has the potential to easily eclipse Fernando Alonso’s record for the most F1 races ever contested in a career in the future.
The two times world champion – who looks nailed-on to secure a third title this season – has the longest contract of any current F1 driver, keeping him at world champions Red Bull until the end of the 2028 season.But despite being in the most enviable position of any driver on the grid with the potential to be in the thick of the action at the front of the field for years to come, Verstappen has been open about how he does not see himself being tethered to F1 for the all of his adult life.
“There’s more things to life than just Formula 1,” Verstappen said prior to the start of the season. “I have a contract until 2028 and, after that, I will see. I already have a lot of plans for what I want to do.”
As with anything, Verstappen has not been shy about expressing his views about the current state of Formula 1 and the direction it is heading. The first area where the world champion appears to be at odds with the sport’s management is with the ever-increasing number of races on the F1 calendar. The last two seasons were originally planned to have 24 rounds, with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali admitting demand is high enough for F1 to include around 30 rounds in a season if the sport’s regulations allowed them to. But Verstappen himself is not so keen on the busy schedule.
“I always said that… if we keep expanding the calendar and the whole weekend is that long, at one point you question yourself is it worth it?,” Verstappen told media including RaceFans back in Baku.
“I do like racing, I do like winning. I know that of course with the salary and everything you have a good life. But is it actually a good life? I think sometimes you get to a point in your career where maybe you want to do other stuff. And I know that I have a contract until the end of ’28 and then we’ll review again. But I do feel that if it’s getting at one point too much then it’s time for a change.”
As well as more rounds, there is more racing than ever before in Formula 1 thanks to the introduction of sprint races into the sport. But despite winning more sprint races than any other driver – four of the eight contested so far – Verstappen has been a vocal critic of the controversial format.
“I look at it from a racing point of view and probably F1 looks at it from a business point of view,” he said. “Of course I understand these sprint races probably are a bit more exciting. But then I look at it from the racing point of view.
“Normally when you do the sprint race of course, lap one, exciting, a few shunts here and there, a bit of damage or a Safety Car. A bit more excitement. But then throughout the race you get quite a clear picture of what is happening, who is the quickest, blah, blah, blah. So then you also have quite a clear view on what’s going to happen the next day. And that probably takes a bit of the shine away from the main event which I think always should be the special event.”
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But it’s not just how often he races that Verstappen has expressed concerns over, but what he is racing. The current ground-effect F1 cars may be some of the fastest in history, but they’re also easily the heaviest. With the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso having raced with cars much smaller and lighter than the modern generation, Verstappen says he has concerns about the direction F1 appears to be going with its technical regulations.
“These cars are, of course, incredibly fast,” he said. “I still enjoy the 2020, 2021 cars – they were a bit more agile, they were more fun, but also they were very heavy.
“Of course, the safety standards, they have to go up and they have to improve. That’s because the cars are getting heavier and heavier to basically make the chassis stronger, all these kind of things. So that naturally has a play.
“We can’t go back to 500 kilos, 550 kilos. But I think where we are at the moment is way too heavy and we need to look into that. Also I think the tyres, these big tyres, you don’t really see a lot when you go through corners in terms of hitting an apex. So I prefer the smaller tyres, it was a lot more fun.”
Verstappen also has concerns about the power unit regulations intended for 2026, which will see the hybrid electric element of F1 cars generating more of the overall power output than ever before.
“I would definitely get rid of the hybrids,” Verstappen explained. “I think all the time when I jump back in like a V8, I was so surprised how smooth the engine is.
“I mean, the top speed is slow, compared to what we have now. But it’s just the pick-up the engine torque, it’s so smooth the whole delivery process, the down-shifts, the up-shifts, it’s so much more natural to what we have now.
“There are quite a few things I would change. I would make the cars also a lot more draggy so you don’t have to rely so much on the DRS. Again, with these new cars in ’26, they look like they have again a lot less drag, so they will be even harder to pass as well.”
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Though Verstappen may not be the biggest fan of the current cars, he looks set to continue dominating the sport in them for the foreseeable future. But despite the lack of genuine competition out front, the world champion says he is not pining for a greater challenge.
“I’ve had so many years where we were very close and we thought we were very close and we thought ‘next year is going to be the year’ and then again, it wasn’t, for various reasons,” he explained.
“Now that we are finally there, I am really enjoying the moment. I love what we’re doing, what we are achieving as a team. People ask me, ‘is that boring’? I say no, it’s not boring, because this is what I’ve worked for all these years together with the team. Everyone was so motivated to get into a position like this. So for us we are enjoying it.
“We are also aware of the situation that now the other people are in the role we were before and they are pushing flat-out to try and catch up. And we know that, we know what they are trying to do, but we are just trying to stay there. We are trying to push as hard as we can to stay on top. So for me, it’s definitely not boring at the moment.”
But with heavy cars, an exhausting schedule of races and the potential for even more sprint races being added to the calendar, there are plenty of reasons why Verstappen’s long-term commitment to Formula 1 is not guaranteed.
“It’s more things that have to come together for me to make my mind up to stay longer,” Verstappen told media including RaceFans last weekend in Silverstone. “All these things are definitely not helping, for sure.”
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Mayrton
16th July 2023, 12:10
I can’t see him staying on after his contract end. He is too much of a pure racer to be able to live with the circusification of the sport. Even more, I wouldn’t be surprised if he does not even complete his contract should the 2026 cars be a disappointment.
Todfod (@todfod)
17th July 2023, 13:31
I don’t see him continuing after 2028 either. I mean, he would have finished 14 seasons by then, which is pretty much the career of most drivers in F1. He also strikes me as a driver who’d want to retire while he’s still the best on the grid… something Lewis would probably have done as well if Abu Dhabi 2021 didn’t play out the way it did.
I could easily see him retiring at the end of 2028 as an 8 time WDC winner as well. There might not be any fans of the sport left by that time, but he’d probably break every record over the next 4 to 5 seasons.
Craig
17th July 2023, 15:27
People said Vettel would be the one breaking all Schumacher’s records and it didn’t happen. Vestappen is more likely to go that way and leave much sooner.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
16th July 2023, 12:14
I think is all depends on if there’s better options around. I do feel it would take a lot to leave F1 though, despite it all it’s still the pinnacle
Pete
16th July 2023, 13:19
It’s the pinnacle but it’s not necessarily the most fun. I’m not sure he cares about his legacy or anything like that and he won’t be short of money by 2028. He can literally pick any series he wants to compete in and he’s get a seat (or would be able to buy one) easily. Or maybe by then, he will want to do something entirely different.
BasCB (@bascb)
16th July 2023, 16:09
I actually think that is the least important part of it for Verstappen by then @brightlampshade.
He will have at least 3, more likely 4-6 championships in the bag by then, will be somewhere close to what Hamilton has achieved in numbers of wins, points, podiums etc. Money cannot buy you all, the motivation has to come from how much you enjoy the cars, how much you get into the challenge (making it important that there IS a challenge) etc.
Given how much he has been looking at his father doing Rallye, doing endurance racing etc, i could easily see Verstappen just going off to live his life, do some other racing he enjoys and being happy winning wherever he turns up to do so.
anon
17th July 2023, 7:36
@bascb Max has subsequently made comments that have downplayed the seriousness of those pre-season comments and seemed to backtrack partially on the idea of retiring early.
Meanwhile, if you ask figures like Domenicali, it seems the impression he has is that that the talk of retiring early is simply part of Max’s politicking in the sport and a way for him to use his fans to publicly pressure the sport to make changes that Max thinks are to his advantage. Some of the subsequent comments by Max that seem to have partially backtracked on the idea of an early retirement would seem to support Domenicali’s suggestion.
osnola
17th July 2023, 19:17
Domenicali is the ultimate politician.
He is trying to downplay serious critics that very rightfully exist
On the other hand max is speaking like he always does. It’s not the traditional F1 pr puppy and when he feels something and people ask for his opinion he will share it .
Mayrton
18th July 2023, 12:40
Yes, I agree there is a political element in his statement, a warning. And I am sure he will act on it as well, should things with Domenicali and the circusification get out of hand. Liberty won’t care, it might even be they’d be happy to see him leave if his domination continuous. So, nice of him to try to keep the sport real, but again Liberty will look the other way and do as they please anyway.
David BR (@david-br)
16th July 2023, 13:15
At present velocities, he’ll have matched Schumacher and Hamilton’s 7 titles and beaten all their records by 2028. Though you’d think he’d take the extra year to reach 8 titles. I get what he says about the lumbersome cars. It’s a terrible job leading them around the circuit a few times on a Sunday but somebody’s got to do it.
Mayrton
17th July 2023, 7:42
I do not get the impression he is interested in Schumachers nor Hamiltons numbers though, so I doubt that would be a motivation to stick around. He is not racing to display or prove himself to anyone. He likes the intrinsic challenge this fastest formula brings. At least, at the moment..
Aquila_GD
16th July 2023, 13:22
So when the whole world is think sustainability, Verstappen wants to go back to gas guzzling V8s. That says a lot!
S
16th July 2023, 13:36
He didn’t say anything about which fuel they would be using.
They could run the same stuff Vettel’s hyping in his cars… Actually, that’s a huge part of F1’s plan in the future anyway.
It’s easy to argue that an F1 V8 (or V10 or whatever) running on a biofuel or other sustainably sourced and low emission liquid fuel is a far better proposition for the environment than continuing to waste time and resources focusing on dirty batteries that require loads of mining and processing of rare and extremely energy intensive minerals… Which then can’t (easily or cost-effectively) be recycled.
So, when will the world start to think sustainably?
drmouse (@drmouse)
17th July 2023, 22:26
The problem is that we don’t have anywhere near enough renewable energy available to produce efuels. We don’t have enough available to run everything which currently uses electricity. We would need an absolutely massive increase in the amount of renewable energy generation to make burning efuels in ICEs viable for personal transport, far more than for any other technology available.
Efuels for Motorsport may be the best way in the short term, but it won’t be long before this is seen as last centuries technology. It will become equivalent to horse racing: using something which has no relevance to anything we use day to day purely for entertainment. Car manufacturers won’t be interested in taking part any more, and investing in developing dead technology will drop off.
That’s not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing. Watching historic racing, Mini racing etc is a lot of fun. But ICE-powered motor racing will be completely disconnected from the automatically industry and won’t get anywhere near the money, interest etc.
mack41
16th July 2023, 15:02
Cutting the number of races and reducing the circus logistics with V8s would do more to cut emissions than the current path. The cars are a drop in the bucket for the season. And they’ll be using a sustainable fuel source.
Coventry Climax
16th July 2023, 15:53
I absolutely agree with what you say, except for your last sentence:
The only sustainable energy sources there are on earth, are sunlight, wind and tide. Even hydro has a big drawback on the directly surrounding environment. Everyday, many, many times our global energy usage comes down on us from the sun. Given the rate everything burns down these days, with Canada currently the worst example, with 10 million square km burnt down already and the real season yet to begin, we need every little bit of green there is. Instead, we’re cutting down trees for ‘renewable’ pellet heaters, for example.
To create sustainable fuel, you have to convert one source of energy into another, which, by definition of the laws of physics, makes you loose energy.
‘Sustainable’ fuel is a hoax. And a good one, as apparently everyone wants to believe it.
But think about this: If the fuel were sustainable, why have all this hybrid stuff in your car at the first place?
Vice versa: As long as you need to conserve energy while using it (the reason for the hybrid stuff), the fuel can’t inherently be sustainable.
S
16th July 2023, 16:04
It isn’t – unless you think the sun is about to stop sending us energy. It’s not sustainable ‘forever’ perhaps – but certainly for 10’s or even 100’s of millions of years.
Equally – the wind will blow for as long temperatures differ from place to place, and water will fall from the sky for as long is it can evaporate back into the clouds.
Harnessing these energy sources takes some energy – no denying that – but so what? That energy is free and abundant. The only limiting factor, in reality, is the superficial financial cost humans have put on the harnessing and distribution of it – and everything else in life.
Because the current fuel isn’t sustainable. Hybrid systems are a means to using less of it.
You could still use a sustainable fuel in a hybrid anyway, if that’s what you wanted to do. Whether it would provide a benefit or not would be more subjective than objective.
mack41
16th July 2023, 16:27
Yeah completely agreed “sustainable fuel” is a joke. Threw it in there since the above comment fared more for optics than anything else.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
17th July 2023, 5:47
Losing energy by converting it doesn’t make it non-sustainable 🙄 just less efficient than using the energy directly.
But since we can’t really use solar or wind power directly, we need to convert it to store it. Even if by the time the energy is converted into forward motion it’s a piddly 10% of the original energy, it’s still sustainable if it’s from renewable sources—and still more efficient than burning Dino-juice (which after you deduct the energy required for extraction, refinement, transportation and finally burning to convert into forward motion, is likely less than 10% efficiency anyway—even with F1 near-50% thermal efficiency).
Sustainable fuels are not a hoax. I’m not entirely sure if they’ll ever become mainstream, as the scale of the numbers are simply enormous—but that doesn’t mean it’s not a real thing. But real and viable are different things. It’s real, but potentially not actually viable.
The best way to reduce emissions is to use less energy in the first place.
drmouse (@drmouse)
17th July 2023, 23:11
Sustainable fuels are only sustainable if they are produced from sustainable energy access.
Currently, we don’t produce enough renewable energy to support all our electricity use. Therefore, adding more electricity use in the form of efuel production requires the use of more non-renewable energy. Effectively, producing efuels cannot be considered to be sustainable until we have an excess of renewable energy.
Of course, the same could be said for EVs right now. The difference is efficiency. Comparing a petrol car to an EV charged by a combined cycle gas power station, the EV will use less than half the dinosaur juice. Comparing that EV to a petrol car run on efuels produced using a combined cycle gas power station, the EV would likely be using far less than 20% of the dinosaur juice.
So, sustainable fuel is possible, but we have a long way to go before it actually becomes a reality, let alone viable.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
18th July 2023, 4:34
That speaks very highly of him, he’s a true purist and he’s not afraid to say it, even when it is much more profitable to be a ‘sustainable’ greenwashing corporate mouthpiece.
floodo1 (@floodo1)
16th July 2023, 14:32
The emissions produced by F1 cars have effectively zero impact on the environment.
Coventry Climax
16th July 2023, 16:08
That’s effectively a lie. Even when you put them in a museum, they’d still have used the energy to create them (where do you think the massive budget to create them goes into? Coffee for the designers? Are you even aware of the amount of energy that is needed to create a carbon part?) and the energy for the museum to have them on display.
But in a museum or running, these cars have only one purpose: amusement.
Using energy for amusement only is -by definition- wasting energy. It might be a small percentage of the total alright, but it’s certainly not zero.
Mind you, it’s wasted on a cause I too like very, very much, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
asd
16th July 2023, 20:21
You missed the point he made. The production of 20 F1 cars and them racing for a couple of hours every 2 weeks contributes close to no pollution on a global scale of humanity.
Also, the F1 cars driving around produce only 0.07% of the carbon emissions produced by the entire F1 circus.
Mayrton
17th July 2023, 7:44
Try explaining that to Saint Vettel. What a guy.. I mean seriously?
drmouse (@drmouse)
17th July 2023, 23:16
If I fitted incandescent bulbs throughout my house, left them on all the time, used an old, inefficient boiler left on constantly with all the windows open, drive the most gas-guzzling vehicle I could find, and basically did the opposite of every energy saving guide, my household effect on the environment would be even less than F1s impact. Does that mean I should not even try to reduce my impact on the environment?
AlanD
16th July 2023, 21:05
CC said “Using energy for amusement only is -by definition- wasting energy.”
But isn’t using the internet to post these coments also using energy for amusement only, don’t the billion selfies taken every day use up an awful lot of energy purely for amusement, isn’t all the music and movies in the world using up energy just for amusement? In terms of the amont of energy we burn for amusement, motir racing is a very very small part of it.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
16th July 2023, 20:45
Verstappen is a bit like Raikkonen in a way. They seem only interested in racing and not much more. When they loose interest in F1, well there are plenty of other categories to race in. This is one of the reasons I think Verstappen will never beat Hamilton’s F1-records, he will be long gone before he has the opportunity to do so.
Ambrogio
17th July 2023, 0:00
Well, as the next change in rules Is going to happen in 2026, he can easily win 3 titles more. Red Bull has the best car and he is probably the best driver, with noone at his level in the other side of the garage (Perez, Ricciardo or Tsunoda).
Then, with 6 titles under his belt and probably around 80 wins, in the last two seasons of his Red Bull contract, it will depends on who gets the best car if he is going to be able to reach Schumacher and Hamilton numbers or not.
osnola
19th July 2023, 19:00
Domenicali is the ultimate politician.
He is trying to downplay serious critics that very rightfully exist
On the other hand max is speaking like he always does. It’s not the traditional F1 pr puppy and when he feels something and people ask for his opinion he will share it .