Max Verstappen discusses where his future lies if he wins F1 Championship with Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton goes undercover to inspire school children

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Max Verstappen says he has no interest in shopping around for teams after 2021, even if he doesn’t beat Lewis Hamilton in this season’s thrilling battle. The championship leader is hopeful to add his name to the history books and win a maiden title this season alongside Red Bull.

At just 18 years old, Red Bull promoted Verstappen to the top team, after being promoted from Toro Rosso five races into 2016 alongside Daniel Ricciardo at the time.

The young Dutchman replaced Russia’s Daniil Kvyat, and immediately proved his worth by winning the Spanish Grand Prix on his debut.

The 24-year-old remains the youngest race starter, youngest points scorer, youngest podium finisher, youngest race leader, and the youngest driver to ever appear on a Grand Prix weekend, and now he is leading the driver’s standings ahead of Lewis Hamilton by 19 points, with just four races remaining.

Verstappen is committed to Red Bull until the end of 2021. However, he does have a performance clause written into his contract.

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Yet, when asked about his future, he was quick to shut down any rumours he was in the market.

“I’m very happy where I am,” he told Square Mile, sharply. “[Red Bull and I] are very dedicated to winning this championship, and hopefully we can do this for many more years.

“At the moment, I really feel like I would never want to leave this team but we’ll see where we’ll end up,” he added, breaking into a smile.

Speaking at the time about his break clause in February this year, team principal Christian Horner said: “All drivers have safeguards within performance, and the reality is that as there has always been.

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“There is an element of performance-related to Max’s contract.

“I’m not going to go into what that is. It doesn’t relate to the power unit in any way, it’s just a binary performance at a certain measurement in time.

“As with all these things, though, to force a driver that doesn’t want to be there, it’s more about relationships than contracts.

“You only pull a contract out of a drawer when you’ve got a problem, in my experience.

“The relationship with Max is very strong. He believes in the project, he believes in what we’re doing.

“He sees the investment that Red Bull is making, very much with the recent commitment on the powertrain, he believes in the people within the team, working within the team.

“I’m confident that we won’t need to refer to any contractual clauses.

“I think that it will ultimately be down to us to deliver a competitive car. That’s what he wants, that’s what we want. He needs that, we need that.

“So in that respect, we’re both in an identical situation.”

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