Max Verstappen reveals the line he refuses to cross in his racing career

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen reveals his racing limit: 'A risk I'm not willing to take'

Max Verstappen's father Jos recently suffered a huge crash

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Wednesday 29 April 2026 18:57

Four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen has opened up on his racing limit, and which series he would not be willing to compete in.

Verstappen has claimed 71 grand prix victories across his career as an F1 driver, and has in recent years also competed in a number of other racing series, including GT3 and sim racing events.

Next month, Verstappen is taking to the Nurburgring Nordschleife once again for the iconic endurance race 24 Hours of Nurburgring, and will hope to bring home the victory with his Verstappen Racing team.

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However, despite his father racing in multiple rally series across the globe, Verstappen has ruled out the possibility of one day racing in rally championships, claiming that it's 'too high of a risk'.

Jos Verstappen has had great success in rally over the past couple of years despite being 54 years of age, but suffered a huge crash at the recent Rally of Wallonia, in which his car flipped over.

Thankfully, both Verstappen Sr and his temporary co-driver Jasper Vermeulen emerged unscathed from the incident during the Loyers stage of the rally.

Speaking before this incident had occurred, Max Verstappen revealed that he would not put himself through rally stages, while also praising his father's racing pedigree.

"Yeah, it's pretty crazy to be honest," Verstappen told the Up to Speed podcast. "I mean what I find really impressive is that he's 53 years old now, almost 54, and he's racing against guys that are, what, late 20s, early 30s. And in some championships, of course, he's beating them.

"And of course, in rallying, a lot goes through notes, but at the end of the day, when you do like a certain rally a few times, you go off muscle memory a little bit for sure. So if you do it for a few years, you get better at it naturally.

"He's very good at it to be honest. Like he loves it, he's very hard to beat. When we go on to like rent a little space on an airport and they set out a track and then you drive together like honestly I have to go flat out to beat him.

"That I like doing but in between like a proper stage and I mean he shares all the videos that he's doing in whatever kind of rally car that he's driving and I mean I find it really impressive. I think it's really cool but I just think about if I make a mistake and I hit that tree, I mean the tree is not moving and that for me is like my limit.

"That for me is something that I don't want to do," he admitted. "It's just a too high of a risk. And I know that sounds maybe a bit silly but in Formula 1 at least most of the time when you crash it's like there is a barrier that should absorb the impact a bit more and it's a bit different - in my head at least - and it's just a risk that I'm not willing to take. But it is really cool to see."

How long will Verstappen race in F1?

Verstappen's long-term future in F1 has been called into question recently, because of his grumblings surrounding the 2026 rule changes.

The Dutchman has described the new cars as 'not fun' to drive, while he has been reported to be 'seriously considering' retirement from the sport at the end of this season.

Verstappen is clearly enjoying his other racing exploits more at this moment in time, and may just be starting to think he could be a full-time GT3 racer while he is still in the peak of his career, at just 28 years of age.

An interview from 2021 recently resurfaced in which Verstappen claimed that he will stop racing if race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase stops working with him. Lambiase has recently been confirmed to be leaving Red Bull and instead joining McLaren, although that move is not likely to happen until 2028.

Time will tell on that front, but it appears as though one thing is for sure; Verstappen will not follow his father's footsteps into rally.

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Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Jos Verstappen