25/11/2024
NEWS STORY
Having safely wrapped up his fourth successive title, Max Verstappen admits that there were times he considered a future away from Red Bull.
If 2023 was a relative stroll in the park, it's fair to say that 2024 was more of an obstacle course.
Other than the fact that the rules stability was seeing the teams converge, to the extent that McLaren looks likely to secure the constructors' title, even before the season had begun there was a dark shadow hanging over Red Bull.
The Christian Horner saga saw the team split into factions, and at a time the Austrian outfit should have been fully focussed on its rivals it appeared to be tearing itself apart as various people within the team fought for control.
Not only were rival teams closing in, the RB20 wasn't the dominant force of its predecessor, while a number of key departures, not least design guru Adrian Newey, added to the turmoil.
Add in a total lack of support from an underperforming teammate and one can see why Max Verstappen might have been tempted to look elsewhere, especially when Toto Wolff was openly flirting with him.
In the afterglow of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, his title secured, the Dutchman admitted that he had considered walking away from the Austrian team.
"The beginning was quite, let's say, a bit messy," he told reporters, "but I think I'm quite calm in those situations.
"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?' and 'how do I want to do this?'" he continued. "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'm in generally quite relaxed about these things because it's very important to split your private life and racing life. It's fine to have these thoughts in your head about what you want to do.
"At the same time, I'm also not someone who makes very drastic decisions. I'm just very happy where I'm at, at the moment. 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 just 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."
The troubles of 2024 saw Verstappen rise to the occasion, and many, like Christian Horner, believe that this year we saw the Dutchman at his finest.
"Last year, I had a dominant car, but I always felt that not everyone appreciated what we achieved as a team, winning ten in a row," he said. "Of course, our car was dominant, but it wasn't as dominant as people thought it was. I will always look back at 2023, because even in places where maybe we didn't have the perfect set-up, we were still capable, because in the race our car was always quite strong, to win races.
"But I'm also very proud of this season because for most of the season, I would say for 70% of the season, we didn't have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead. So that is definitely something "that I'm very proud of."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Las Vegas here.