Max Verstappen says he was baffled by the rumours swirling over the summer on Red Bull's alleged use of asymmetric braking, and addressed rival Formula 1 teams trying to stir up trouble.
After a dominant start to 2024, Red Bull's fortunes took a turn for the worse around May's Miami Grand Prix, when McLaren brought a major upgrade package that revamped its MCL38 into a race-winning car, while Red Bull says it went down a wrong development path with its RB20.
Red Bull initially struggled to respond to its downturn in competitiveness, with its last win now dating back to Verstappen's triumph in June's Spanish Grand Prix, and has only just started turning the corner on its car's handling issues in recent races.
Speculation over the source of Red Bull's form dip mounted in the summer when the FIA tightened up its regulations around asymmetric braking, effectively closing a loophole for the 2026 regulations and retroactively applying the new phrasing to this year's rulebook.
The FIA further confirmed the rule change had not been prompted by a current team using a system that the new wording outlawed, but that didn't stop speculation from suggesting it was Red Bull that had been using a solution that it then had to remove from the RB20.
Speaking exclusively to Autosport, Verstappen reflected on the whole episode, and the flak his world championship-winning team received, with some amusement. "People always come up with different stuff," he said. "I find it really bizarre how they come up with some of these things, but it is what it is. It's part of the game, but I usually just let it go.
"I've been in F1 for 10 years now and I'm not wasting time on all those stories. I mean, I barely read anything about F1 anyway. Of course, sometimes I see something or someone else tells me: "Did you see what this and that person said?' But I always say people can think what they want, I'm not going to waste my energy on that. So, I don't really care about what other people say."
Red Bull also caught flak from rival teams over its form dip and its off-track power struggles, which prompted McLaren CEO Zak Brown to say that Red Bull had been "destabilised". He later described the team as a "pretty toxic" environment.
"People that say all sorts of stuff should just focus on their own team," Verstappen replied when the subject was brought up. "That's nothing specifically against Zak Brown, by the way, it applies to everyone. People just need to focus on themselves, and that's what I'm doing as well."
The Red Bull - McLaren rivalry has now also ignited on track, with McLaren overtaking Red Bull in the constructors' championship and Lando Norris challenging Verstappen for the drivers' title, including a collision between the pair in Austria. But the Dutchman doesn't think things will get as tense as they were during a fraught 2021 title clash with Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.
"Yes, because right now we still have four teams at the front, while back then you just had the same two people up front," he explained. "Of course, 2021 was my first world championship, so that was very different already. I think I'm a bit more relaxed about it now.
"Of course, I want to win and of course, I'm going to do my best to defend that [52-point] lead. But the feeling is very different from 2021."
