MAX VERSTAPPEN DELIVERS MERCEDES BLOW WITH ‘DESIRE’ ADMISSION OVER F1 FUTURE

Max Verstappen has said he has not necessarily got the “desire to suddenly build up something new” away from Red Bull.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has made clear that the reigning World Champion is currently top of his list of candidates to replace the outgoing Lewis Hamilton at the end of the season, but with Verstappen under contract at Red Bull until the end of 2028 and the reigning champions having the fastest car on the grid, it currently looks an unlikely prospect.

Max Verstappen: ‘Why would you want to leave when you are already in the best position?’

Verstappen made it clear in Miami that, even if Mercedes were to offer him a reported €150million per season to race for them, he would not be interested in switching teams purely for financial reasons.

With Verstappen having previously expressed doubts over where his future may lie after the fallout surrounding the internal investigation by Red Bull GmbH into team principal Christian Horner, where allegations against him were dismissed, the reigning World Champion has made it clear his wish is to remain in the fastest car possible moving forward.

And having been a Red Bull driver since his junior days, he added that there is not a “desire” to build a project around him at the moment.

“Well, at the end of the day, these kinds of decisions are not made very easily and I’m very happy with where I am,” Verstappen told Sky F1 when asked about what the future may hold.

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“I want to be in the fastest car, that’s what I always said with the team. That’s what we have at the moment, and that’s what we try and have also next year.

“I don’t necessarily have the desire to suddenly build up something new or whatever.

“Because why would you want to leave when you are already in the best position and you think you can continue that for a long time?”

Verstappen has won four of the opening six races so far in the 2024 season, leading the early Drivers’ standings by 33 points heading into the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola this weekend.

Winning a fourth consecutive title this year would make Verstappen only the fifth driver in history to achieve such a feat, after Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and 2021 championship rival Hamilton.

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2024-05-15T06:53:45Z dg43tfdfdgfd