Max Verstappen issues early retirement update

Max Verstappen has issued an update on previous comments about potentially retiring from F1 earlier than the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Verstappen is a four-time world champion in the sport at the age of 27, and is on track to break a whole host of all-time records if he continues on the same trajectory.

However, his Red Bull team have failed to give him a car capable of seriously challenging for the drivers' championship in 2025, and the Dutchman has only managed to win two of the first 12 races of the season.

That has led to doubts about his future with the Milton Keynes-based outfit, with Mercedes the team most strongly linked with acquiring his services, although Toto Wolff has now said that their priority is to keep Kimi Antonelli and George Russell for 2026.

Now, Verstappen has issued an update on when he may opt to retire from F1, suggesting that having a championship-contending car is not the be all and end all, and hinting that he could race until his late 30s, in contradiction with previous comments.

"People sometimes hang around maybe to create more money, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t come first," Verstappen said in an interview with The Athletic.

"It’s important you’re here because of the hunger to win. Some people come here to just get the best out of their car because some don’t have a winning car. But that’s why I think: as long as I can do that, and I’m working with the people that I enjoy working with, then, yeah, we’ll drive.

"I don’t know when that will stop. Is that 32? Is that 35? 36? I don’t know. It’s impossible to know."

Will Verstappen leave Red Bull?

With Wolff's comments ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, it's looking unlikely that Verstappen will be driving elsewhere in the 2026 season.

However, questions about his future will surely only intensify as the 2026 season progresses, with a number of teams not having tied their drivers down beyond the end of 2026.

Red Bull are heading into a new era, with only their second ever team principal stepping up to the role in Laurent Mekies, following the brutal axing of Christian Horner.

On top of this, Red Bull will be producing their own power units from 2026 onwards, after their highly-successful partnership with Honda comes to an end at the end of this year.

Red Bull will be desperate to keep hold of their star driver for many years to come, particularly as the Dutchman has scored 165 of their 172 constructors' points in 2025.

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