Ex-F1 champion urges Max Verstappen to think of ‘himself’ following Red Bull’s 2024 slump
The four-time world champion Max Verstappen has been making his trade with the Red Bull F1 team since 2016.
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Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)
Max Verstappen did not have the best of times in the 2024 F1 season despite amassing his fourth consecutive world championship. The RB20 proved incredibly inconsistent and Red Bull ended up third in the constructors’ championship.
Following this, the Ex-F1 champion Jenson Button, has urged Max Verstappen to think about himself ahead of the upcoming seasons. The 27-year-old currently has a contract with the Milton-Keynes-based team until the end of 2028.
Maybe he will look elsewhere, but they’ve given him so much over the last few years in terms of performance. It’s always a tricky one for a driver. He doesn’t want to leave a team that’s given him so much, but he’s got to think of number one, which is himself.
Jenson Button via Racingnews365
The Milton-Keynes-based team had the third fastest car on the 2024 F1 grid. Moreover, there are no guarantees whether the team will be able to come up with a championship-worthy challenger for 2025. 2026 is the year, Verstappen could really decide to pull the plug and leave Red Bull.
Max Verstappen could come under immense pressure to ‘maximize’ weekends in 2025
While Jenson Button has asked Max Verstappen to look at his options, he feels the 2025 season could prove challenging for the latter. If Red Bull comes up with an average challenger, Verstappen will come under huge pressure to deliver on the racing track.
But if they start like they are now in 2025, it puts a lot of pressure on the drivers to maximize every weekend.
Jenson Button via the same interview
The lights of Ferrari and the Woking-based McLaren outperformed Red Bull in the 2024 F1 season. Their challengers were way above the kind of performance the Austrian outfit was able to extract from the inconsistent RB20.
With 2025 being the last year of stable regulations, the top teams are expected to dish out maximum performance. The lights of McLaren, Ferrari, and even the Brackley-based Mercedes F1 team will bring out its absolute A-game!
Keeping this in view, the Verstappen-led Red Bull outfit could be in for an extremely horrendous campaign. Moreover, if it certainly proves to be the case, the Dutchman could really move to a rival outfit from 2026 onwards. The likely destinations for him could be Mercedes or the Lawrence Stroll-owned Aston Martin F1 team.
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)