Verstappen plays down talks with Toto Wolff

Max Verstappen has played down the likelihood that he will ever use his contract’s famous ’exit clauses’.

In an end-of-year interview with Viaplay, the new quadruple world champion was reminded of something he said earlier in 2024 - that "Toto (Wolff) has been very nice lately".

Indeed, prior to signing Kimi Antonelli as the Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton’s teammate, Mercedes boss Wolff campaigned hard to woo Verstappen away from Red Bull amid the team’s internal struggles.

"I understand Toto," Verstappen smiled. "You always want the fastest driver in your car, don’t you?

"A lot was going on for them too, because they had to make a choice for the new driver," he added. "And the big teams are always interesting.

"On the other hand I’m already in a very big team. We’ve achieved a lot of successes together, and it also feels like a second family. So these are considerations that you can’t make very quickly or lightly.

"It’s not like you wake up one day and say ’Yes, next year, it’s over’. I’m not someone who shoots from left to right very quickly anyway. You have to think very carefully about whether you want to do this.

"But you always talk to each other, and I’m not lying that we sat down together," Verstappen said, referring to his talks earlier this season with Wolff.

"I think we had very constructive conversations. I think everyone has always been very open and honest with each other, but on the other hand I’m also very loyal to my own team. I just feel at home there, so there’s not much to gain at the moment.

"I’m still very young, so a lot can still happen in the future," said the 27-year-old, whose current Red Bull contract runs through 2028.

"But for me it’s not just about Formula 1. I always want to do a lot of things after F1, so who are the right partners for that? These are things that I think about, but I do not have to make a decision yet."

Preceding a dip in car performance and the departure of Adrian Newey among others, Verstappen admitted another very difficult part of the 2024 season was the Christian Horner scandal, which triggered a leadership crisis.

"There was a lot going on behind the scenes," Verstappen said. "I see more than most people can see, of course, even if you don’t have to say everything in the media.

"It’s much more important that we get along behind the scenes. There were a lot of accusations back and forth."

A pivotal moment in the scandal, amid rumours that Dr Helmut Marko would be pushed out of the team, was when Verstappen warned that if his long-time mentor departed, he would also leave.

"I don’t think we would have reached that point, because I made it clear how I felt about it," Verstappen said. "He stayed, and in the end I think we managed to build a very strong bond with the whole team, and with Christian.

"In the end, what matters is that you resolve it together, and not in the media. And that worked. My father and Christian too. You have to talk about it together, and that’s what they did.

"In the end, the situation wasn’t nice, but there are worse things in life. For me, it wasn’t difficult to keep the focus on the races. It didn’t matter that much."

As for the ongoing rumours that Verstappen could leap out of his contract after 2025 to race at Mercedes under the all-new regulations, he played down the prospect.

"In Formula 1, you don’t see very often that someone gets out of their contract," he said. "It’s not like in football, where you sign for five years and leave a year later. And that’s not my intention, either.

"But you never know what can happen next year, or in two years. I can’t control that. Of course, improvements need to be made with the car, but I think that is very logical. And I feel very good with the team. I can be myself here, so in that respect I have nothing to complain about."