{"id":645997,"date":"2026-05-03T01:23:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T01:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/645997\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T01:23:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T01:23:23","slug":"fia-president-says-f1-would-miss-max-verstappen-but-go-ahead-if-the-red-bull-driver-walks-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/645997\/","title":{"rendered":"FIA president says F1 would miss Max Verstappen but ‘go ahead’ if the Red Bull driver walks away"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The President of Formula 1’s<\/a> governing body said the sport would miss Max Verstappen if he follows through with his remarks about potentially retiring<\/a> at the end of the season, but he added that F1 would move on if the Red Bull driver decides to walk away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he goes, we will miss him, but the sport will go ahead,\u201d FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said Saturday at the Miami Grand Prix. \u201cSo many stars come and go \u2014 and teams. But the Formula 1 will always stay. FIA will always stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Verstappen has been a vocal critic of the 2026 cars\u2019 reliance on electrical power and the compromises it forces drivers to make on the track, going as far as suggesting this could be his last season in F1.<\/p>\n

During the sport’s five-week break \u2014 a pair of April races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were called off because of the war in Iran \u2014 the FIA made changes to its power-unit regulations while taking input from drivers on how the organization should address complaints about the car.<\/p>\n

Verstappen, a four-time F1 champion, said this week that more significant changes are needed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not what we need yet to really make it flat-out. It\u2019s complicated to get everyone to agree,\u201d he said Thursday. \u201cI just hope for next year we can make really big, big changes. Like I said, it\u2019s a tickle, but it needs to be more than a tickle, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Sulayem said he had a positive recent interaction with Verstappen and told him he\u2019s a fan of his driving and mental approach. He added that Verstappen has said \u201cwhat he feels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what he says, is it what he wants to do?\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t \u2014 I really don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Verstappen qualified second for Sunday’s race<\/a> at Miami and said afterward he’s feeling more comfortable in the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t feel like I’m a passenger anymore in the car,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Horner return would be welcomed<\/p>\n

Ben Sulayem said Christian Horner would be welcomed if he decides to return to F1 after the longtime Red Bull team principal was abruptly fired last July, ending a 20-year stint that included eight drivers\u2019 titles.<\/p>\n

The FIA president added the sport misses Horner, who had been the Red Bull team principal since it entered F1 as a full constructor in 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talk to him regularly,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I feel he will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The President of Formula 1’s governing body said the sport would miss Max…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,312589,817,837,140086,813,816,71584,825,283711,10952,918,85],"class_list":["post-645997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-sulayem","tag-f1","tag-fia","tag-fia-president","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-horner","tag-max-verstappen","tag-miami-grand-prix","tag-mohammed-ben-sulayem","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645997","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=645997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}