04/04/2026

SPORTS SATURDAY | APR 4, 2026

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MAX VE RS TAPPE N has been told to “shut up and deal with it”by former F1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya after the Dutchman said he is considering retirement at the end of the season. Four-time F1 world champion Verstappen has been vociferous in his criti cism of the new cars and regulations this year and, after finishing eighth in Sunday’s Japanese GP, admitted he is considering walking away from the sport at the end of the current campaign. Yet Montoya, a seven-time race winner with Williams and McLaren, has followed Martin Brundle’s lead in criticising Verstappen’s repeated criticism, insisting that “nobody is bigger than the sport.” “If you’re unhappy with being in F1, you should leave,” Montoya said. “Have the cour age of your convictions. If you’re unhappy with the rules, then talk to people instead of threatening that you’re going to leave. That’s not going to help that much. “If I were him, I’d shut up, deal with it and admit that he’s in a s***** car and admit he’s frustrated because his car is a piece of cr** that is 20kg over and it’s going to be uncom petitive all year. At the end of the day, nobody’s bigger than the sport.” It is believed that Verstappen – who has a £50 million (265m) deal with Red Bull until the end of the 2028 season – has an exit clause for the end of the current campaign, allowing him to leave if he is positioned out side the top two in the drivers’ champion ship by the summer break. “It’s like when you’re in a marriage and the other person doesn’t want to be with you, what are you going to do?” Montoya added. “If the other person decides you’re not the person they want to spend the rest of your life with, whether you want to try to keep them or not, they’re going to be unhappy. And they’re going to grab you by the balls and use you, and then still leave. “The sport is bigger than one person. And it is. However big a person he is, the sport is bigger. The problem with leaving, if you really are just leaving to put pressure on to change regulations, the sport is going to move without you. “And when you want to come back, there might not be a place for you. You need to know that when you’re leaving, it’s for good. I did.” Sky Sports pundit Brundle, a former F1 driver himself, admits he is “bored” by Verstappen’s repeated protestations, implor ing the Dutchman to instead“make the most of it.” “Max is very unfiltered,” Brundle told Sky’s F1 show podcast. “Always has been and he’s talked a lot for a long time about not being in this for the long haul, ‘I’m not going to be hanging around here in my forties’ or what ever. “Max would say it’s getting a bit boring now. I think it’s getting a bit boring with what he’s saying. Either go or stop talking about it, because it is what it is. You’ve got to make the most of it. “Nobody’s indispensable in this busi ness,” Brundle added. “I’ve seen a number of amazing people come through this sport and are no longer with us, or have worked on to something else, and the sport carries on. “This goes for any of us. The minute we stop, people will be talking about whoever is doing the job next. There are any number of Antonellis, Bearmans, Lindblads, who would do the job incredibly well for 1% of the money. “So the sport will just move on if Max decides to go but he’s sort of doing quite a bit of damage meanwhile. But I think we all appreciate that’s how Max rock and rolls.” – The Independent Verstappen told to ‘shut up’ by Montoya

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen reacts after being eliminated during qualifying for the Japanese GP at Suzuka Circuit on March 28. – REUTERSPIC

Growing angst with F1 is obvious and a year-out could reinvigorate the Dutchman ‘Max should take a break take a break’

Ű BY KIERAN JACKSON

downturn in performance. Back in 2023, Verstappen warned that simulations of the 2026 car looked “terrible.” He would argue, as would many other drivers on the grid, that he has been proved correct. Qualifying has become an examination of energy management and engine power, as opposed to all-out, on-the-limit speed behind the wheel. The process of lifting-and-coasting on straights, downshifting gears to harvest depleted energy reserves, is undoubtedly against the very nature of what Formula 1 should stand for. In races, the numerous overtaking aids now used – overtake mode, boost mode and active aerodynamics – have triggered Verstappen to compare the sport to Mario Kart. He referenced the use of the “mushroom” in the computer game on Sunday after Ollie Bearman’s 308kph crash and, at testing in Bahrain, says it was “like Formula E on steroids.” He has not minced his words: he hates these new cars. “It doesn’t feel natural to a racing driver,” he told 5 Live . “I try to adapt but it’s not nice, the way you have to race. It’s really anti-driving. At one point, yeah, it’s just not what I want to do.” While he insists it is not a basis for his unhappi ness, Red Bull’s current plight is not helpful. They are currently sixth in the constructors’ standings and Verstappen is already 60 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli. His inability to compete with the quickest cars has provoked levity in the cockpit; when passed by former teammate Pierre Gasly at Suzuka, he waved to the Alpine car. Some may, therefore, see his growing angst as sour grapes. One thing is certain: it is why constant links with a move to Mercedes last year made complete sense. The forecast was right: the Silver Arrows are the leaders of the pack. Other factors are at play, too. While only 28, Verstappen has raced in F1 since he was a child, at just 17 years old. This is his 12th consecutive sea son and, by the summer break, he will be fifth on the all-time list of most consecutive races, behind just Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. More than ever, it seems his patience with the record-long calendar and the extravagance of the weekend spectacle is wearing thin. His unneces sary booting out of a Guardian journalist from his

media session on Thursday speaks to that. There also seems a very real longing to spend more time at home in Monaco. His daughter Lily, with long-term girlfriend Kelly Piquet (the daugh ter of three-time F1 world champion Nelson Piquet), will turn one in May. Verstappen is also a “bonus Dad”, as he puts it, to Kelly’s six-year-old daughter Penelope, from a previous relationship with ex-Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat. “Privately I’m very happy,” Verstappen said on Sunday. “Normally it’s 24 (races). Then you just think about is it worth it? “Or do I enjoy being more at home with my family? Seeing my friends more when you’re not enjoying the sport?” What is obvious is that Verstappen would not retire from racing altogether. In contrast to his cur rent view of F1, his eyes light up when speaking about endurance racing and he has confirmed his participation in the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring event in mid-May. Last week, he also announced his “Team Redline” simulator team would be rebranded as “Verstappen Sim Racing”, hinting at more focus in the virtual world. Combined, all of this paints a picture that an axing of his £50 million-a-year (RM265m) Red Bull contract, two years early, is a fathomable proposi tion. Of course, his team’s competitiveness can improve. F1 and the FIA are also eyeing changes to the current regulations, though modifications can only go so far. The most logical step is for Verstappen to take a sabbatical at the end of the season. A one-year break from the globetrotting circus could reinvig orate him as he enters his 30s. He would be of interest to every team on the grid in 2028. His hope would also be that this new genera tion of car is tweaked to ensure a purer form of driving, both on Saturdays and Sundays. Fernando Alonso took a similar step at the end of the 2010s, racing at Le Mans and in IndyCar, before returning full-time. Michael Schumacher, too, took a break as his era of Ferrari domination ended and came back three years later with Mercedes. Don’t be sur prised if Verstappen opts for a similar trajectory. – The Independent

D URING Red Bull’s previous era of ground-effect supremacy, such was the dizzying level of domination, there was often not much to write home about when attending Max Verstappen’s media sessions. That is now very much not the case. On the contrary, his powerful outbursts to the press have been a regular vignette of the new Formula 1 sea son in its opening phase. When did you first hear of Verstappen’s grumpiness? Was it his stinging disapproval of the new 2026 cars at pre-season testing and the first two races? Was it the Dutchman banishing a British jour nalist in Japan for a question asked three-and-a half months ago? Was it his threat to quit F1 at the end of the sea son, vocalised on Sunday after finishing eighth at the Japanese Grand Prix? Clearly, all is not well in camp Verstappen. Comments this week, from his fiery father Jos, best highlight the 28-year-old’s deep-rooted dissatis faction with the sport. “Max used to think racing a Formula 1 car was the most beautiful thing there was,” Jos told Dutch outlet De Telegraaf . “But now I have a rather bleak outlook. “I wish I could say it wasn’t so… but with an eye on the future, I do see this becoming a problem.” It should be noted that Verstappen has threat ened to quit F1 before, even when at his pomp. In 2023, the most dominant year of his career, he said it was “not worth it” if the number of sprint races were increased. A year later, when punished for swearing in an FIA press conference, he said he was finding F1 “really tiring” and hinted at walking away. To a point, these statements felt like empty threats. Why on earth would Verstappen, one of F1’s modern greats, retire when at the peak of his powers? Would he seriously turn his nose up at the chance to win more world championships, plac ing him in the pantheon of racing legends? This year feels different, however. A myriad of circumstances depict why Verstappen’s latest mooting of retirement, candidly told to BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday, is genuine on this occasion. The first is the state of the sport and Red Bull’s