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Max Verstappen has addressed reports of a £150,000,000 offer from Mercedes by claiming that his future, as things stand, will be at Red Bull.
Adrian Newey, the ace designer at the Austrian team, called time on his partnership with the team recently and is set to leave in the first quarter of 2025. As soon as the official announcement arrived, the Dutch driver's position has now come into question. Newey's departure was also followed by father Jos Verstappen's immediate comments about the team breaking apart.
Max Verstappen, however, has maintained that Red Bull will continue to be his home until the right people are in the right place and the team is stable. His comments came in response to reports that he and his team met Toto Wolff and were even offered a record £150,000,000 per annum to switch to Mercedes.
On the eve of the 2024 F1 Miami GP, Verstappen was once again questioned about his future. Addressing the reported Mercedes contract amount, the Red Bull driver told The Telegraph that his decision will not be purely down to the money.
"My future is with Red Bull right now. I also hear amounts passing by. 150 million euros? For me, it's not about money. It’s about performance. because if I earned more and I would drive on the track for 6th or 5th place, I would be quite grumpy at the end of the day!," Verstappen said.
He added:
"I think everyone should always be optimistic and hopeful, but right now i can say that I want to stay with the team. I believe in the project we are working on, but in sports and in life you never know what will happen in the future."
Max Verstappen asserts once again that he sees his future at Red Bull
Max Verstappen also touched on Adrian Newey leaving the team, stating that there is still a strong core group in place.
The reigning champion talked about the importance of having the fastest car on the grid and how that was what it all came down to. He added that as long as the team provides him with that, he won't look for a change.
"[When asked about weighing up his future] No, not at the moment. Like I said before, I think it’s important to always have the quickest car, because that makes it a lot easier to think about what is right. At the end of the day, we have a really strong group of people that maybe aren’t talked enough about in the press in general," Max Verstappen said.
He added:
"That’s fine [on Newey's departure], they know what they have to do, they know what they are worth to the team, and they know how important they have been for the current success as well with the car. We just keep on working."
