As a triple world champion, Max Verstappen is used to being the focal point of attention on a grand prix weekend, but in Singapore the Red Bull driver caught the spotlights for the wrong reasons, caught up in a controversy with the FIA over swearing in the Thursday press conference.
The saga started with an interview of FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem with Motorsport.com in which he had urged the F1 to go further in stamping out swearing from TV broadcasts, and when Verstappen described his Red Bull car as f***ed on Thursday, it netted him a community service punishment from the governing body which was met with disbelief both by himself and his colleagues.
In his trademark renegade style, Verstappen staged a protest with purposefully curt answers in official FIA press conferences, only to then hold his own media gatherings in which he freely answered any and all questions.
Verstappen’s actions weren’t just a display of his rebellious bravado and youthful insouciance, as there was a genuine undertone of discontent and bitterness with how it had all played out and how he felt drivers were being muzzled rather than being allowed to express themselves freely, at least to a sensible degree.
“When you can’t be yourself, you have to deal with these kinds of silly things. I’m at a stage of my career where I don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring,” he said. “Of course, it’s great to have success and win races, but once you have accomplished all that, winning championships and races, then you want to just have a good time as well.
“Everyone is pushing to the limit, but if you have to deal with all these kind of silly things: for me, that is not a way of continuing in the sport, that’s for sure.”
It’s a thinly veiled threat to quit the series, which would seem odd for an extremely well-paid 26-year-old who has been dominating his discipline, claimed three world titles and might well be on his way to rewriting the history books. So how seriously should F1 take Verstappen’s retirement talk?
It is worth pointing out that it’s far from the first time Verstappen has signalled his intention not to stick around forever. After taking his first world championship in 2021, he already stated he has little appetite to chase Lewis Hamilton’s records or compete in F1 for the sake of it, and the move towards a 24-round calendar and sprint races has also dampened his enjoyment of being part of the globetrotting circus.
Christian Horner, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Erik Junius
“I’m not a fan of it at all,” he said at the start of last season when asked for his opinion on the sprint format. “I think when we’re going to do all that kind of stuff, the weekend becomes even more intense and we’re already doing so many races.
“We’re heading into seasons where you have at one point 24, 25 races and if we then start adding even more stuff, it’s not worth it for me anyway. I’m not enjoying that.”
He also voiced concerns about the state of the 2026 regulations, with the driving characteristics of the new machinery another factor in his decision-making to see out his Red Bull contract until 2028.
In doing so, Verstappen may come across as spoiled, throwing a tantrum when he doesn’t get his way or gets slapped on the wrists, but reality is a bit different than that.
Other drivers may have dealt better with the rising demands of the series, but it is worth pointing out that Verstappen is a true racer, from a family of racers. His successes have turned him into a global superstar, but reluctantly so.
This is the guy who, after qualifying on pole at Imola, jumped on iRacing to help his sim racing mates win a 24-hour sim race, and who is already putting plans in place to run his own GT3 team and compete at the Le Mans 24 Hours, ideally as far away as possible from F1.
Verstappen turns up just to race and win and is dealing with all the additional bullsh*t – if you will – until he has had enough. And in his mind, the FIA’s censorship and handholding, such as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz being fined for crossing a live track after his qualifying crash, are the latest elements that are starting to tip that scale as he reaches the end of his 10th season in the series.
Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, walks back to the garage after crashing out of Qualifying, as Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24, passes to head back to the pits
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“When I saw it, even like getting noted, I’m like, ‘my god, what are we doing?’ These kind of things are just, for me, super silly. We’re not stupid.”
There is the matter of Verstappen’s long-running Red Bull deal until 2028, but even aside from any break clauses that could see him move to a rival team, F1 is too all-consuming for Red Bull to be holding a driver to his contract when he doesn’t want to be there anymore.
But we’re not there yet, and it is hoped private talks between the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and FIA will help take the sting out of this unwelcome episode and find a compromise.
“I don’t know how serious they will take that kind of stuff,” he said on whether or not his protest would be taken seriously by the governing body. “But for me at one point, when it’s enough, it’s enough. Everything will go on in Formula 1 without me, it’s not a problem, but it’s also not a problem for me. So it’s how it is.”
“If you can’t really be yourself to the fullest, then it’s better not to speak. But that’s what no one wants, because then you become a robot and that’s not how you should be going about it in the sport.”
