Irritated Max Verstappen tells Crofty “focus on commentating”

Max Verstappen was not keen to entertain speculation surrounding his Red Bull F1 future.

He shot back against Sky Sports' David Croft who asked him a question about leaving Red Bull in the press conference ahead of the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Amid Red Bull’s difficult start to 2025, rumours have been swirling about Verstappen’s long-term future at the team despite him being under contract until the end of 2028.

The four-time world champion remained tight-lipped as he faced a grilling about his future ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Asked directly by Crofty if he is looking to leave Red Bull, Verstappen said: “No - I think just focus on commentating and I’ll focus on driving.

“Then we don’t need to think about any other scenarios.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admitted after last weekend’s horror showing at the Bahrain Grand Prix that the Dutchman has performance clauses in his contract that would allow him to leave at the end of the year.

That has only fuelled talk that Verstappen could be weighing up his future away from Red Bull as he continues to be linked to the likes of Mercedes and Aston Martin.

“I don’t know to be honest,” Verstappen replied when asked during Thursday’s press conference in Jeddah why Marko had made such comments.

“I just keep working and trying to improve the car. Naturally Bahrain wasn’t a great weekend for us. I think we were all pretty disappointed with that and we just try to keep on improving the car and come up with new ideas to try on the car.

“The competition is tough and that’s how I go about my weeks. Just trying to improve my situation.”

Verstappen is eight points behind championship leader Lando Norris after only being able to finish P6 in Bahrain. 

Tight-lipped Max Verstappen gives little away 

Verstappen did his best to dodge a line of questioning on whether he would rather Marko not speak publicly about his future.

“I think we had really good chats in the last few weeks with the people about the car,” he said.

“We are all very much aligned - we are just trying to improve the situation. It doesn’t change anything so we just keep going.”

Verstappen also moved to shut down the speculation when he was asked why he has not been linked with Ferrari.

“I don’t know. A lot of people are talking about it, except me,” he firmly responded.

“Like I said before I just want to focus on my car, working with the people in the team.

“That’s the only thing I’m thinking about in Formula 1 at the moment and I’m very relaxed.”

The 27-year-old added: “I am happy I am just not very happy with of course our car.

“But that goes for everyone. We all want to be better. I think there is no secret about that, so that is what we are trying to improve.”