Max Verstappen has admitted he came close to quitting Red Bull during his turbulent title-winning season in Formula 1 this year.
Verstappen sealed his fourth world title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix after he finished ahead of Lando Norris to extinguish the McLaren man’s faint championship hopes for good.
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But Verstappen’s success has come against a political backdrop that led him to reconsider his place with the Milton Keynes squad.
The 27-year-old was caught up in an internal investigation into team principal Christian Horner at the turn of the year, with his father Jos Verstappen embroiled in the bitter battle, a situation the younger Verstappen labelled as “messy”.
Consequently, the Dutchman was openly courted by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who made no secret of the fact he wanted the Red Bull driver to replace Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.
Questions were raised whether Verstappen would quit the team and force through a move to the Silver Arrows.
And, while Verstappen admitted he did think about his options, he has now pledged his future to Red Bull, saying he is “loyal to the team”.
When asked by Autosport if there was any moment he considered leaving Red Bull for Mercedes, or indeed quitting altogether, he said: “I think in your life, every year there are always thoughts going through your head from, 'how long do I still want to do this? Where do I want to do this? How do I want to do this?'
“There are things in your private life that happen, of course. In your racing life, there are always things that you have to deal with and think about.
“But that's fine. I think in general I'm quite relaxed about these things because it's very important to split your private life and racing life.
“But it's fine to have these thoughts in your head about what you want to do.
“But at the same time, I'm also not someone that makes very drastic decisions. And I'm just very happy where I'm at the moment.
“I'm very loyal to the team. I appreciate, of course, what they have done for me from picking me up out of F3 and giving me an F1 seat and then going through all these emotions over all the years with these key people in the team.
“So, when there are tough times, it's very easy to say goodbye or forget about it or ignore it. But I think it's actually way more important to actually face them and go through it together and deal with it and just try to move on from there and focus back, of course, on the performance side of things and have fun out there.
“That's, at the end, the most important. If you're not having fun, then there's no point to continue.”
Horner had hailed Verstappen’s fourth title win as the best of his career and when the Dutchman was asked if he agreed with his boss, he added: “I think so, too.
“Last year, I had a dominant car, but I always felt that not everyone appreciated what we achieved as a team, winning 10 in a row.
“Of course, our car was dominant, but it wasn't as dominant as people thought it was. I will always look back at [2023], because even in places where maybe we didn't have the perfect set-up, we were still capable, because in the race, our car was always quite strong, to win races.
“But I'm also very proud of this season because, for most of the season, I would say for 70% of the season, we didn't have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead. So that is definitely something that I'm very proud of.”
