As you’ll know, Max Verstappen is the current F1 World Champion. He won that honour on December 12, 2021, after a tense battle with Lewis Hamilton.
It was one of the greatest fights in an F1 season ever with both men heading into the final day level on points.
The Red Bull man is giving his best effort to retain his crown over the 2022 season and a duel is emerging with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. The Dutchman currently holds a nine-point lead, but the standings have been very up and down in terms of wins for the two drivers.
Away from the track, Verstappen’s contract at Red Bull ends in 2028. He’s on £40 million a year until then and that will take the 24-year-old up to his 31st birthday.
Verstappen has previously stated that he wants to stay with Red Bull until the end of his Formula 1 career and those plans haven’t changed, though, when the contract expires at the end of 2028, so might the Dutchman’s time in F1.
When asked about his future, the reigning champion said the following, as per Planet F1 who were sourcing Daily Mail: “I’m not planning on changing teams. I’m happy here and they are happy with me, but I haven’t made up my mind after 2028. I might stop.
I’ve been in Formula 1 since I was 17. I’ve done a lot of seasons in F1. I may want to do different stuff. By 31, I don’t know whether I will have peaked or where the drop-off in performance may have occurred.
“I want to do other types of races – endurance racing for example. Maybe I will have had enough of travelling all the time. Maybe I will want an easier life and just do the races I like. Whenever an opportunity comes up to win a championship, you want to take it. If I’m in a fight in 2028, it may be stupid to suddenly stop, you know?”
Verstappen also commented on what happened last year and how he believes both he and Hamilton feel about the events.
“I wouldn’t say that you forgive and forget, but as a driver, you definitely forget. What happened in the past, you forget and you focus on what’s ahead. We haven’t really talked about last year. It’s in the past.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the remainder of the current season plays out.
A lot can happen in six years and the amount of success both Red Bull and Verstappen have within that time could play a huge part in what happens beyond the 2028 contract deadline.
