Max Verstappen has been urged to either quit Formula One or stop talking about his issues with the sport’s new regulations.
The four-time world champion is ninth in the standings after three races and appears less than inspired as F1 enters a new era with a 50-50 split between the Internal Combustion Engine and electric battery power.
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Verstappen is one of several drivers who have criticised ‘yo-yo’ overtaking and drivers travelling at different speeds around the track due to battery harvesting, as well as less flat-out laps in qualifying.
He was seen waving at Pierre Gasly when the Alpine driver zoomed away from him during the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Dutchman is contracted with Red Bull until the end of 2028 but his despondent tone has sparked concerns he would quit F1 this year with a clause in his contract stipulating he can walk away if he isn’t in the top two of the championship by a specified date.
But Verstappen has been told to either quit F1 or suck it up, with veteran commentator Martin Brundle casting doubt on fears the 28-year-old will leave the sport to drive in other racing categories.
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Show podcast, Brundle said: “I would hugely miss his talent.
“His generational speed and car control is something that very few people in the history of motorsport have had. It’s quite extraordinary.”
“I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that, given they were building their own powertrain for the first time, his management would have put in an exit clause at the end of the year to see how it goes.
“Max is very unfiltered isn’t he? He always has been. He’s talked a lot for a long time about ‘I’m not in this for a long haul, I’m not going to be around in my 40s.’
“I think it’s getting a bit boring now, what he’s saying. Either go, or stop talking about it. It is what it is, you’ve got to make the most of it.”
He added: “Nobody is indispensable in this business. I’ve seen a number of amazing people come through this sport and are no longer with us, or have moved on to do something else. The sport goes on. This goes for any of us. The minute we stop, people will be talking about who does the job next.
“There are any number of [Kimi] Antonellis, [Ollie] Bearmans, [Arvid] Lindblads out there who would do the job incredibly well for 1% of the money. The sport will just move on if Max decides to go.”
“His points are brutally made, but well made that this is just wrong at the moment. But what a Schumacher would have done is close the door, thump the desk, metaphorically get a hold of the right people by the throat and walk out with a smile and say everything’s fine.”
Verstappen has been linked with a possible move to Mercedes, who appear to have the dominant car in these regulations with a fairly settled drive line-up of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.
“Mercedes are saying there’s no room at this inn at the moment, so I don’t quite know where he’s going to go,” Brundle said.
“He’s doing quite a lot of damage meanwhile, but we all appreciate that’s how Max rock and rolls
“I’d be surprised if he’d really walk away from it. It’s great to be at the Nürburgring. I’ve done that in the paddock – 150 cars on the track. He’ll find the 24-hour race quite challenging, quite sketchy.
“But he’s got his own team. He loves that. He loves his sim racing. Do I think he’d just walk away from F1? No, I don’t, providing he can get a car that pleases him.”
Speaking to Casinostugan, seven-time F1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya echoed a similar sentiment, saying Verstappen should “shut up”.
“If I were him, I’d shut up, deal with it and admit that he’s in a sh*tty car and admit he’s frustrated because his car is a piece of cr*p that is 20 kilos over and it’s going to be uncompetitive all year.
“Compared with my time the problem is there’s too many people with opinions, and too many people listening to those opinions. The opinions of people matter way more than in my time. In my time if you didn’t like it, you just had to suck it up.
“At the end of the day nobody’s bigger than the sport.
“Max [Verstappen] should call Toto Wolff who’ll be ready to sign him, that’s if he hasn’t done that already. I guarantee you that phone call has already happened.”
Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has stated the team is not even contemplating the possibility of Verstappen quitting F1.
“He’s passionate about the sport and he wants to contribute to the sport and to make sure the sport lands in the right place,” Mekies told the Beyond The Grid podcast.
“Hence, he’s vocal about the tweak he thinks we need to do.
“We are not having the retirement talk with Max right now. We are having the hardcore analysis of how to go faster with our car.
“Again, as a driver to make sure that he can be flat out in qualifying and to make sure he can have the good racing. We are not having retirement discussions.”
Mekies added: “I have full confidence that as a sport we have the tools to tweak the regulations.
“If we do that, I have every confidence that Max will keep seeing what we all see, is that you still have the best 22 drivers in the world there.
“You’ll have the fastest car on the planet and is the most competitive environment and he is ultimately a competitor.”
F1 officials will use the month-long break between races in April to discuss possible tweaks to the regulations following Ollie Bearman’s scary crash at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Haas driver had a huge closing speed differential with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto heading into a corner, and had to veer off track to avoid him, crashing into the wall at an impact of 50g forces.
Bearman limped away from the terrifying crash but was cleared of any fractures.
