“Once I Stop Driving”: Max Verstappen Rubbishes Red Bull Exit for Mercedes Rumors With This Response

Credits: IMAGO PanoramiC

Red Bull is currently going through a period of massive uncertainty with the ongoing Christian Horner saga. As a result, speculations have been rife about the future of some of the other senior members of the team. One of them is three-time champion Max Verstappen. There have been rumors that the Dutchman is considering switching to arch-rivals Mercedes.

When asked in a recent interview with The Project if there will ever come a time when he will not race for Red Bull, Verstappen gave a hilarious reply. The 26-year-old said, “Once I stop driving.”

After sharing a hearty laugh with the interviewer and Daniel Ricciardo, Verstappen added, “I don’t really think about it too much anyway. Like, what I’m doing in the future, whatever. I know that I have a contract until ’28. So, I guess that’s enough.”

The rumors over a move to Mercedes emerged after a fallout between Jos Verstappen (Max Verstappen’s father) and Christian Horner. As the controversy over the allegations against the team boss refused to die down, Jos called for Horner’s ouster.

The former F1 driver even held the Briton guilty for causing a division in the team which could “explode” anytime. Soon after Jos’ allegations, Helmut Marko made a startling revelation.

In an interview with the media during the Saudi Arabian GP, the Austrian confirmed his absence from the upcoming Australian GP. Without confirming, the Austrian hinted at a possible suspension that Red Bull management might hand out to him.

Max Verstappen took this news seriously and vowed to follow Marko in case the latter decided to exit the team. The reigning champion has anyway never shown an interest in continuing in F1 for long. Therefore, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if he chose to retire earlier than expected.

Max Verstappen could bid F1 adieu before the end of his Red Bull contract

Max Verstappen has time and again reiterated that he is not a fan of chasing records, and prefers to take each day as it comes. Therefore, if push comes to shove, Verstappen might just retire well before his current Red Bull contract concludes.

While the chances of it happening anytime soon are slim, he might even take the leap as early as this year. That, of course, would require the things at Red Bull to go completely awry and beyond repairable damage.

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This is because the Christian Horner controversy has still not come to an end. Despite the team boss’ call to the media to “move on“, the saga has continued. That is mainly because of the lack of transparency in the investigation that “dismissed the grievance” against Horner.