Max Verstappen admits he questioned Red Bull F1 future during 2024

Max Verstappen has admitted he reconsidered his F1 future with Red Bull amid the political turbulence surrounding the team at the start of the year.

The newly-crowned four-time world champion enjoyed a dominant start to 2024 but Red Bull’s on-track success was overshadowed by a scandal around team principal Christian Horner and political in-fighting.

Verstappen’s future was thrown into doubt following a fallout between his father, Jos, and Horner, and when Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko - the Dutchman’s close ally - looked as though he might leave the team.

The 27-year-old also had to contend with Mercedes publicly courting him and being heavily linked with a switch to the Silver Arrows.

“I think in your life, every year there are always thoughts going through your head from, 'how long do I still want to do this? Where do I want to do this? How do I want to do this?’” Verstappen said as he opened up on his thought process.

“There are things in your private life that happen, of course. In your racing life, there are always things that you have to deal with and think about. But that's fine.

“I think in general I'm quite relaxed about these things because it's very important to split your private life and racing life. But it's fine to have these thoughts in your head about what you want to do.”

Despite conceding the situation at Red Bull was “messy”, Verstappen insisted he feels his relationship with the team is stronger having faced challenges throughout 2024.

“At the same time, I'm also not someone that makes very drastic decisions. And I'm just very happy where I'm at the moment,” he continued.

“I'm very loyal to the team. I appreciate, of course, what they have done for me from picking me up out of F3 and giving me an F1 seat and then going through all these emotions over all the years with these key people in the team.

“So, when there are tough times, it's very easy to say goodbye or forget about it or ignore it. But I think it's actually way more important to actually face them and go through it together and deal with it and just try to move on from there and focus back, of course, on the performance side of things and have fun out there.

“That's, at the end, the most important. If you're not having fun, then there's no point to continue.”