The Australian Grand Prix was a nightmare for three-time F1 World Champion MAX VERSTAPPEN. Our resident F1 guru explains what happened at Albert Park…
Max Verstappen had a torrid time at last month’s sold-out Aussie GP. In the week leading up to race day, he faced an intense grilling from the world’s media; with rumours he was on the cusp of switching to rival Mercedes with his dominant Red Bull team allegedly in tatters. Then on Sunday, Verstappen was out of the race on lap four with his right rear brake stuck on, ending dreams of a 10th-straight win that would equal his own astonishing record set just last year.
“It is unfortunate about what happened today, but we can see so far in the data that as soon as the lights went off the right rear brake just stuck on and locked,” Verstappen said at the time. “It was basically like driving [a car] with the hand brake on so, of course, the temperature just kept increasing, and then I could see smoke appear as it had caught fire. We knew a day like this could come at some point, so we need to be proud that we have had a great run with nine races in a row.”
But, while fans missed out on an intense head-to-head on-track, the media got it off-track on the Thursday ahead of the race, with news Verstappen was allegedly negotiating a shock early exit from his current deal (ending in 2028) to join Mercedes. Why, though, would the champion give up his dominant, race winning drive? The Dutch megastar was, therefore, surrounded at his usual pre-event catch-up, who quickly plonked their audio recorders and phones in front of him to grab the juiciest of stories. In the end, Verstappen denied he’d leave his Red Bull home, but the grilling, with MAXIM Australia present, makes for a stunning read…
You’ve said you want a nice quiet racing environment to be racing in, but it doesn’t feel like the spotlight is going from Red Bull. Are you concerned by this ongoing scrutiny of the team?
We all want the same, and we want to just perform on track, so that’s what we want to focus on as a team. The problem is also that it’s not only within the team, but from the outside a lot of speculation is happening, right – and that is something that you cannot control. The only thing you can control is, of course, we just focus in the same direction within the team, and I feel that is what we are doing.
How satisfied are you with the way the team has handled the controversy over Christian, and does it affect the way you feel about yourself in the team?
Well, from my side, I think I don’t want to be too involved with these kinds 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 to make sure that, you know, that’s what I’m hired for. But from what I know, everything is handled in the right way and I’m not going into any further details on 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.
Does this ongoing issue make it more difficult to be focused; does it take energy from you?
Not for me because I very easily switch off and on from F1. I don’t really think about F1 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’s also important to also just come home and think about other stuff and be busy and working on other projects of mine, where I have a lot of passion for. For me at least it works, I don’t know for other drivers that are a little bit different, but let’s say for all the things that have been going on, it’s very easy to jump back in the car and perform.
Does it make it more peaceful to get in the car?
Peaceful doesn’t matter. So many great people also in the garage, for example, that has never changed, everyone has been focusing in the same way, clearly as you can see with the results that we’ve had in the team. We would have loved to have more talk about our car, probably yes, but we’ll just try to keep on working on the performance to keep winning.
You’re on a long deal where you are. Will you remain at Red Bull all those years, through to 2028?
That’s why I, of course, signed the deal in the first place. And what I’ve said before, I’m happy within the team and it’s very important that we try to keep the key players for a longer period because that’s where the performance is as well. At the end of the day, it’s a performance business. It’s the same if I wouldn’t perform, I wouldn’t be sitting here. So, I know how that works. But, for sure, with the deal in place, that is also my intention to be here until the end because it would be a great story for me personally to just see it out until the end. It basically means that I’ve been part of one family, and one team.
Who are those key players?
I’m not going to name, because then people know.
Do you feel as comfortable in the team as you did, say, six months ago?
Yeah, I always felt comfortable because it’s like a second family. In a family there might sometimes be, I would just say not disagreements, but as you know in families, you can’t choose family – you can choose friends. It’s good. It’s been the same, and we just focus on the performance. Like I said before, I would like the chat to be a little bit more about the great car that we have, but hopefully that will come slowly.
Toto [Wolff] said at the end of the last race that he’d love to have you at Mercedes. Does that have any impact on you?
I can understand. It doesn’t have any impact on me, of what I would do or whatever. I mean, it’s always nice to hear that, but Toto and I have had our little moments – that’s normal between two teams as well, battling for championships. The respect has always been there, but it doesn’t change anything.
Would you ever join Mercedes?
What year do you mean?
Any year.
I don’t know. After 2028 happens I don’t know if I’m going to stay in F1 or if I’m going to continue. Maybe I’ll sign a new deal, I don’t know that yet.
There’s been a bit of speculation about the strength of the Red Bull powertrains [project, starting in 2026] and it might be one reason you want to leave before 2028. How confident are you in the powertrains project?
If I had to speculate about everything, I might be worried if I’m still alive tomorrow, right? I don’t really worry about that too much, but I’m also in close contact with Christian [Horner] about it, and the people working there. Everyone is working flat-out, so there’s no need to panic about that as well. Also, it’s still not 2026 and we know that it is a very big task. We don’t take that lightly and with so many established engine manufacturers, we don’t think it’s going to be easy to beat them. We have a lot of good people working on the project and I’m very excited about it, so time will tell where it’s going to be.
Do you see a role for yourself in helping the team stick together?
It’s a lot of people that have been contributing to the success of the team from the start, and that of course needs to be respected. So, I think in general with successful teams that when you have a good core of people it’s important to keep them all together, happy and in the same roles.
Everyone in F1 thinks you’re invincible at the moment. Does it feel that way to you?
I don’t really think about being invincible. Of course, as a driver you always have to believe that you’re the best on the grid. But, at the other end, I’m also not really worried about thinking that way, like I’m just enjoying myself. I feel good with the car, and I guess that’s enough. I mean, I know when I get to the race weekend I always try to do the best I can, I try to really maximise everything that I can and of course when you then have a great car you are able to do great things.
The last time you didn’t finish the race was Melbourne 2022. How does it feel to have such a reliable car?
It hasn’t always been like this in the past. I also don’t want to really think about it too much or change it. I think the last two-and-a-half years has been pretty incredible from the team side with the reliability and of course we want to keep that going. That’s, of course, what we are all working on.
By STEWART BELL
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