Max Verstappen insider drops details over emotional F1 split

A former close ally within Max Verstappen's personal team has revealed the upset caused by the pair's split.

Verstappen worked with British trainer Bradley Scanes for four seasons between 2020 and 2023, with the Dutchman winning three of his four world championship titles in that time.

They formed a close bond, and the pair remain friends even today despite having gone through an emotional split at the back end of the 2023 season when their working relationship came to an end.

Scanes has now revealed the way in which he finally managed to break the news to Verstappen, and just how emotional the duo got in the process.

"It took me ages to tell him," Scanes revealed on the High Performance podcast. "I decided in the summer break that, I've got to do this, so that's August and we were still fighting for the championship, so it wasn't clear.

"So I put it off for that, I probably didn't need to, but then even once the world championship was done, I still put it off after that. We won it in Qatar and I think it took me three or four races after that to actually tell him.

"And I remember the time, we were training in Monaco, it was a race weekend off and we'd trained all week, I'd prepared to tell him on the Tuesday, then on the Wednesday, then on the Thursday and then on the Friday, just before I was about to catch my flight, we finished our session and I was like 'mate I've got something I need to tell you'."

"I could see his demeanour change straight away, I think he kind of expected what was coming next, and it's probably one of the first times I've seen him properly upset as well which was nice and not so nice at the same time."

"Then we had a chat after, you know, could we make it work as a split, but for us that wouldn't have been a possibility, we were both way too all in for that."

"We just decided to have a good end to the year and stay friends, which we still are, it was hard it was definitely like a breakup."

Then, when asked by host Jake Humphrey if there were tears involved, Scanes revealed: "Yeah for sure... like the welling up!"

Verstappen's long-term future up in the air

Following the split from his trainer, Verstappen went on to win the 2024 world championship without Scanes at his side, but the last 12 months or so have been a struggle for the Dutchman.

His team's declining performance meant he only won two of the last 14 races of his championship-winning season in 2024, and he has also only managed to win two grands prix in 2025 after the first 14 events of the campaign.

This worrying trend has led to question marks surrounding his long-term future at Red Bull, with Mercedes previously sniffing around to see if he would become available, but Verstappen confirmed at the Hungarian Grand Prix that he will not be going anywhere for the 2026 season.

After that, however, his plans are less certain, with the general feeling among the paddock being that he will use 2026 to see which team manage to master the 2026 regulation changes before potentially jumping ship.

Scanes, meanwhile, is now a performance coach and physiotherapist with Red Bull, but is not involved in the day-to-day training of Verstappen, as well as working as a human performance consultant for Honda Racing Corporation.

READ MORE: F1 boss admits Lewis Hamilton contract 'problem'

F1 HEADLINES: Verstappen stunned by team-mate reveal as Red Bull sacking verdict issued

READ MORE: F1 team change name ahead of Dutch GP

READ MORE: F1 driver salaries: What stars including Hamilton and Verstappen earn

Related