{"id":364341,"date":"2025-12-22T10:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364341\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:45:09","slug":"its-not-only-about-f1-max-verstappen-reflects-on-mercedes-talks-and-the-factors-that-would-lead-him-to-make-any-future-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364341\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s not only about F1\u2019 \u2013 Max Verstappen reflects on Mercedes talks and the factors that would lead him to make any future move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen has given an insight into the talks that were held earlier in the year over a potential Mercedes switch, with the Dutchman also reflecting on the factors that would matter to him if he were to consider a move away from Red Bull in the future.<\/p>\n

Despite holding a contract to race for the Milton Keynes-based outfit through to the end of 2028, speculation linking Verstappen<\/a> to a possible Mercedes<\/a> move started to mount during the middle of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

This was brought to a close ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix in August when Verstappen confirmed that he would be driving for Red Bull in 2026<\/a>, adding: \u201cI think it’s time to basically stop all the rumours, and for me it’s always been quite clear that I was staying anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several months on, the four-time World Champion was quizzed during an interview with BBC Sport<\/a> on how seriously he considered a possible move, leading him to explain how various elements would play a part in any decision about his future.<\/p>\n

“For me, it’s not only about F1,” said Verstappen, who has been a part of Red Bull<\/a>\u2019s line-up since his promotion from Toro Rosso in 2016. “There’s a lot of things that have to come together for me to make a change. Future roles, stuff like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if I ever would make a change, of course, it’s a big one for me because this definitely feels like a second family, and that’s not easy to replicate, let’s say, like that.<\/p>\n

“The change, if I would ever make one, it’s not only because I need a faster F1 car or I need a difference in the environment. There’s a lot of things that are around my F1 career and things that I’m doing outside of F1 that all have to come together.”<\/p>\n

Pushed further on whether this means that it was not something he was seriously considering at the time, Verstappen responded: \u201cI’m not going to lie. For sure, there were talks. But at the same time, it was all very friendly and open. Nothing more than that.”<\/p>\n

Verstappen \u2013 who won on his GT3 debut<\/a> at the Nurburgring Nordschleife in September \u2013 also spoke of his desire to continue improving as a driver, adding that he does this by \u201calways trying to look for details, trying to just learn about the car, learn about yourself, do a lot of things also outside of F1.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I’m driving, of course, a lot of different cars, external which I don’t think it hurts you, racing in F1,\u201d the 28-year-old continued. \u201cSo, yeah, just trying to make yourself a bit more of a complete driver, a bit more all-round.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has given an insight into the talks that were held earlier in the year over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-364341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}