{"id":302375,"date":"2023-05-31T04:49:02","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T04:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=302375"},"modified":"2023-05-31T05:59:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T05:59:31","slug":"f1-champ-verstappen-drops-major-contract-clue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=302375","title":{"rendered":"F1 champ Verstappen drops major contract clue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> has given the strongest indication yet that his current Formula 1 contract with Red Bull<\/a> will be his last.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Sky Sports F1, the two-time champion revealed he has desires outside of the world championship that he wants to pursue while he's still competitive.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has at times voiced his displeasure with F1 and its propensity to change up the format and grow the calendar.<\/p>\n

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The self-proclaimed homebody said he doesn't see a future where he wants to race 25 weekends of the year.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

F1 initially planned a 24-round calendar this year, with six weekends featuring additional sprint races. However, this year's is only 22 rounds after COVID-19 scuppered the Chinese Grand Prix and flooding forced organisers to axe the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Verstappen, who at 25 years old is in his ninth F1 season, is currently contracted to Red Bull on a seven-year deal through to 2028.<\/p>\n

That will take him to 31 years old by the time that agreement is up.<\/p>\n

"I love racing. I mean otherwise, I wouldn't be on the simulator at home doing other kinds of stuff," said Verstappen.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

"But that's exactly the thing. I also like to do other kinds of racing, not only Formula 1. And yeah, I know that I'll be 31 when that's the end of the contract.<\/p>\n

"But I've, also then at that point already, been in F1 for a very long time. It's a lot of work. I mean, it's travelling a lot, not only the races in between returning to the factory, you have marketing commitments. And I'm really a person who loves to be at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"And let's say maybe at one point, I like to be competitive, I like to win, but if you can't fully motivate yourself to get to every race, then I think that's the point where you have to question yourself, do you really want to continue?"<\/p>\n

Verstappen earmarked the 24-hour sports car races at Le Mans and the Nurburgring as bucket list items on his radar.<\/p>\n

He has often dabbled in Esports, competing in events like the Bathurst 12 Hour.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

"Like I said, I love doing Le Mans, I love doing other 24-hour races, I love watching the GT3 cars go around the Nordschleife. So all these kinds of things, I do want to experience in my life," said Verstappen.<\/p>\n

"I don't want to do them when I'm 40 or 50, because then I'm not at the peak of my performance. And when I'm 31, I'm pretty sure that I am still capable of doing great things. So, we'll see.<\/p>\n

"I mean, it also depends a bit on how competitive we're going to be over here in '28. So there's still a lot of question marks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"But yeah, I don't want to, when I'm at that age, travel to 25 races a year and besides that travel to the UK to do simulator work, or do an appearance or commitment here and there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It's too much at one point. I started driving when I was four and a half, competitively at seven. At one point, I think it's enough to be away that much a year."<\/p>\n

\"Race<\/p>\n

There is, however, one sticking point.<\/p>\n

Leaving a team at the peak of its power might be too big an ask.<\/p>\n

Asked what he would do if Red Bull is still dominating, Verstappen replied, "I think it will be very hard to leave, for sure."<\/p>\n

Formula 1 resumes with the Spanish Grand Prix on June 2-4.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen has given the strongest indication yet that his current Formula 1 contract with Red Bull will be his last. Speaking with Sky Sports […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":302377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302375"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302382,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302375\/revisions\/302382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/302377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}