Max Verstappen has cast doubt on his long-term future in Formula 1 by saying he has already reached the halfway point in his grand prix career.
The three-time world champion will compete in his 200th F1 race at this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix where he was asked whether he would make another 200 appearances. However, he flatly turned down the suggestion he would stick around to notch up 400 races.
He said: "No. We are past halfway for sure but it's been already an incredible ride. It doesn't feel like 200 races, but we do a lot of races in the year, so you add them quite quickly."
Verstappen has made no secret of the fact he will stop racing in F1 whenever he loses his passion for the series. He has already pledged his future to Red Bull for next season, yet there is even a suggestion he may not see out his Red Bull deal, which runs to the end of 2028.
The 26-year-old has harboured ambitions to race at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the future.
When asked if he would be keen to stay beyond the terms of his current contract, Verstappen, who has won 61 of the 199 races he has entered, added: "2028 is far away.
"In my mind at the moment, I'm not thinking about a new contract. I want to see how it goes and see the new regulations to see if it's fun or not.
"Then even in 2026 and 2027, there's a lot of time to decide what happens. I keep everything open and am quite easy-going about it."
Verstappen added that he would consider "other opportunities" in the future - but only once his F1 career was over.
"It's difficult to combine [other series] with F1 at the moment, with having so many races," he explained. "Once I stop in F1, I would like to do other stuff and be more relaxed, so being more at home because when I compete in something, I want to be good and want to win."
Verstappen is without a win in the last four races but still leads the championship by 78 points from Lando Norris in second place.
The Red Bull driver has won all three instalments of the Dutch GP since it returned to the F1 calendar in 2021 and says he is not too concerned if he loses that record this weekend.
"You just have to be realistic - if you can win the race of course you go for it, and if you don't have a chance then it's very simple, you don't deserve to win, you move on and try to do better," he stated.
"We just have to wait and see where we are throughout the weekend - I also don't know. Last year coming here I was a lot more confident that we had a good chance of winning the race, but that's how the season is already, it's a lot more competitive.
"From our side I think we're still trying to improve, to find a better car balance. Hopefully we can start here to find a better balance."
