Max Verstappen pinpoints one way in which the fun in F1 'will disappear very quickly'

Max Verstappen has made it clear that if he ended up being in a car in the midfield, not winning, it could take the fun out of the sport. The Dutch driver and his future have been a bone of contention for some time. It all began in 2024 when his father, Jos Verstappen, was quite public in his dislike of Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

The 2024 season saw the beginning of the drop from Red Bull, where the form started to disintegrate. While that continued, the speculation about Max Verstappen's future increased. While Verstappen secured his title last season, the team's inability to recover the deficit has meant that rumors have continued to surface.

Talking to The Athletic, Max Verstappen said that there's still a fun element to F1, which comes from working with some of the brilliant minds in the sport. He did, however, admit that at the end of the day, drivers want to win. If you are unable to do that and you're stuck in the midfield, that's when the fun will disappear very quickly. He said:

“Working with all the incredibly talented and smart people within the team, pushing myself in the car to get the best out of it, and the competition, naturally, with all the other drivers. Just trying to win at the end of the day. And of course, if you really have no chance to win anymore and I have to drive in the midfield, then fun will disappear very quickly.”

Max Verstappen pulls back the curtain on the struggles when the team is regressing

Max Verstappen talked about how it can be a bit hard to manage things when the team is going through a downturn. At that time, the driver could be a bit critical in the media, which could lead to the team environment becoming a bit tense as well. This has been evidenced a few times in the last year or so, where the driver's blunt nature in the media has raised a few questions about where he saw his future.

He said:

“If I’m getting upset with things, and they hear me being upset with things, it also does something with them, because they’re like, ‘Oh, Max is angry, we cannot approach him,’ or they start to also be a bit tense. And you have to try and be motivating, supporting, which is not always easy when you have been dominating as a team and then you’re dropping back a bit.”

Whether the Dutch driver's future could be secured with Red Bull for 2026 is a question we are yet to have an answer for. As the interview was conducted during the Austrian GP, before the seismic shift happened at the team, one can only wonder what Max Verstappen's approach is going to be after Horner's exit.