Max Verstappen’s Abu Dhabi 2021 team radio reveals sad truth about Red Bull exit

It was the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Max Verstappen had just claimed his first F1 world title as he asked his team: "It is unbelievable guys. Can we do this for another 10, 15 years together?"

That simple team radio message, in the immediate aftermath of a forever controversial finish to an epic season, may provide the most crucial clue about the mighty Dutchman's next move.

That night at Yas Marina was the start of a Verstappen/Red Bull dynasty - the team had just once more ascended the F1 summit and it possessed a glittering array of talent.

Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Helmut Marko, Jonathan Wheatley, Rob Marshall and Gianpiero Lambiase among others. All part of a formidable unit which provided the launch pad for Verstappen to dominate the sport.

F1 HEADLINES: Horner's big mistakes revealed as another Red Bull star joins rivals

Why couldn't the Red Bull dynasty last longer?

It was entirely normal for the now 28-year-old Verstappen to ask that question as he returned to the pits after his sensational victory, after all why wouldn't he? Only sport, and life, tends not to work like that.

Fast forward five years and this is a very different Red Bull. That star-studded support cast is almost gone - all have either left or announced they are leaving (in the case of Lambiase).

Watch any documentary about a sports team which has won it all, and you will often hear them talk about what is special about their greatest season. It is seldom the trophies or the money, but almost always about the shared moments and camaraderie.

What Verstappen once had at Red Bull he no longer has, and he may never have it again. He may need to move to pastures new to rekindle to once more experience moments like that.

What has happened to Red Bull since Verstappen's most recent world title in 2024 is seismic but by no means unpredictable. It is hard to build a winning team and a winning culture, even harder to keep it together.

Never enough success to go around

Even when success arrives, sometimes there is just not enough to go around and people and dynamics change. As Verstappen's 2021-2024 Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez perfectly explained only this week.

"Of course it turned out to be there were some very tough periods towards the end," he told the High Performance podcast.

"The pressure and everyone internally where we had too much success. So people got bored I think and they were fighting each other, all the drama around."

Many of that team had been at Red Bull long before Verstappen, so it's unsurprising they would reach their end before he did. Now, as he surveys what is left in Milton Keynes, what is he supposed to think?

Great dynasties crumble from within

History tells us that most great dynasties crumble not because of external pressures, but from within. What is left now is a team struggling to reclaim former glories, and a driver who has every reason to miss what he once had.

Why couldn't it last for 10-15 years as he had asked after Abu Dhabi? Why wasn't the success enough to ensure harmony for longer? Why couldn't all those great names stay to win more championships?

Maybe, it's just time

All entirely normal questions, and all with one simple answer. It almost always plays out like this.

So if Verstappen does decide to leave Red Bull after this 2026 season, there may just be the simplest of reasons to explain why.

Everything eventually runs it course. And now, it's just time.

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