Max Verstappen brushed off talk over his Red Bull future and insisted he is “very relaxed” with his situation at the team.
A disappointing weekend for the four-time world champion in Bahrain led Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko to express “great concern” over Verstappen’s future.
The Dutchman is only eight points adrift of championship leader Lando Norris in the standings but, despite a stunning win in Japan, his Red Bull car has been struggling with balance issues and is consistently off the pace of McLaren.
Marko’s comments reignited previous links to Mercedes and Aston Martin but Verstappen is not indulging in any speculation.
“I don’t know, honestly a lot of people are talking about it except me,” Verstappen said ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“I just want to focus on my car and work with the people in my team. That is all I am thinking about in F1 at the moment.
“I am very relaxed. I am happy, I am just not very happy with our car.
“That goes for everyone, we all want to be better, there is no secret about that so that is what we are trying to improve.”
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Verstappen finished sixth in Bahrain on a track which exposed the weakness of the Red Bull car.
After the race, Sky Sports pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz reported seeing Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen in an intense discussion with Marko.
“To my knowledge they were having a conversation about everything, which is allowed,” Verstappen added.
“I think we were all left frustrated with things that went wrong in the race. That’s what my manager Raymond and Helmut spoke about and Christian (Horner) came along as well so they had a conversation.
“We all care about the team at the end of the day. We care about the team, the people and results.”
Verstappen has ongoing links with Aston Martin, where he could link up again with former Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey and Honda, whose engines have powered him to his four world titles.
That would potentially threaten Fernando Alonso’s place at the team but the Spaniard is not concerned.
“I don’t think so as I have a contract for next year. The rumours are very good for the team,” he said.
“A world champion is sometimes linked with other teams and the teams they are commenting are Aston, Mercedes. That shows the project that we are in.”
Asked if he would like to partner Verstappen, Alonso added: “Yes. But it is very unlikely to happen.”
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