Verstappen’s efforts to go incognito, entering the test under a pseudonym, “Franz Hermann”, were predictably unsuccessful. “Well, I knew it would come out,” he says. “I mean, I wore my own helmet so I was hardly trying to hide it. I just didn’t want to be on the entry list, that’s all. I didn’t want people rocking up at 8am.”
Breaking the GT3 lap record probably did not help his bid for anonymity, either.
Verstappen says he had “a lot of fun” at one of motor racing’s most feared circuits in the world, but scotches suggestions that he might surprise everyone by taking a sabbatical next year to indulge his non-F1 passions.
It would make sense in one respect, I suggest, in that it would afford him the opportunity to see how F1’s new regulations shake out and which team is the most competitive. “No,” he says firmly. “It is not in my mind to take a year off. I know in the future I want to do other things. And I’m already, slowly, you know, tasting a bit of it. But no, I will be in F1 next year.”
The question is: where? While Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull until 2028, rumours that he might seek to switch teams, rumours which first surfaced in the middle of the Christian Horner saga last season, when Verstappen’s father Jos and mentor Helmut Marko were both at war with his team principal, have never truly gone away.
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes principal, openly courted the Dutchman during the height of that saga, before eventually promoting teenager Kimi Antonelli. But neither Antonelli nor George Russell has contracts beyond the end of this year, meaning the Brackley team remain one possible destination. Aston Martin, too, would undoubtedly pay a king’s ransom to sign the fastest driver currently on the grid.
So, I ask, can Verstappen categorically state he will be at Red Bull next season? “I mean, I’ve said it many times,” he replies.
Has he, though? Has he not said “There is no reason to leave as long as I’m happy”, or “I’ll stay as long as I’m competitive”, or some variation thereof?
“Well, I’ve said it to the team,” he insists. “I think that’s the most important thing.”
So he won’t say it publicly? Surely until he does, speculation that he might leave is inevitable?
“Yeah, but I mean, we also don’t know if I will wake up tomorrow, you know what I mean? You just never know. This is the thing.”
Reading between the lines, it feels as if Verstappen is saying he is 90% sure he will stay but does not want to guarantee it publicly, partly to keep the pressure on Red Bull, partly in case the team suddenly fall apart over the next few races and he needs an exit strategy.
That does not look as if it will happen. While Red Bull are no longer the dominant force they were two seasons ago, as it stands they are the only team other than McLaren to have won a race this season. Verstappen has taken three pole positions as well as his memorable victory in Suzuka.
More importantly, he is still in title contention, sitting third in the drivers’ championship, 32 points behind Oscar Piastri, albeit still with work to do. As McLaren’s dominant performance in Miami showed, they are head and shoulders above their rivals in the right conditions, and competitive across the board.
“Look, we can’t always win,” Verstappen says. “But are we happy with the pace we have in the car right now? No. I mean, I think no one is except for McLaren. And they aren’t standing still, either. So we need to improve. Our one-lap pace is okay, but they have a massive advantage when the tyres start overheating. That’s where everyone else is just… yeah, not on the same level.”
Could the forthcoming changes to the rules on flexi-wings, due to be introduced in Barcelona later this month, be a game changer? Verstappen looks doubtful. “It might make a little difference, but not much,” he says.
More likely, he is going to need Lando Norris and Piastri to keep taking points off each other, allowing him to stay in touch while Red Bull try to close the gap.
The inter-team dynamic at McLaren is certainly an interesting one. With Piastri currently on four wins to Norris’ one, the pressure on the Briton is ramping up all the time. Verstappen could be excused for adding to it. But he declines to stick the boot in.
“Honestly, I think both of them are very good,” the 27-year-old replies when asked whether he now sees Piastri as the bigger threat. “Lando, I think, has the pace. It just hasn’t really come out yet over a [sustained] period of time. But I think it’s still going to be a tight championship for them. I don’t know where I’m going to be. I’m just trying to maximise every result. At the end of the day, we can’t rely on them to make mistakes. It has to come from us.”
Verstappen’s reluctance to stir the pot is increasingly his preferred modus operandi. While he can be punchy when he wants to be, and quick to anger, he says he is tired of F1’s constant controversies and prefers to stay out of them if he can.
He does not get drawn into seemingly outlandish rumours that Horner might be fired after this race, saying: “I have no idea where that comes from. I had people writing me like, ‘what is this about?’ And I was like, ‘Excuse me!? I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ The problem is that now with social media, more and more people try to get a voice or try to act as a professional media outlet or whatever. But yeah, it’s nonsense. Honestly, I really don’t know where it comes from.”
He refuses to react to Norris’ parting shot in Miami, that Verstappen “did not race smart”, costing himself a possible podium, burning up his tyres in a pointless defensive battle with the McLaren. “Lando can say what he wants,” he says. “Honestly, I enjoyed it. I know it makes headlines, which is what drives the sport. But for me, it’s not worth my time to try and counter that again. I race how I race.”
He says he is “50-50” about next year’s new regulations when he might have been expected to write off next year’s cars as oil tankers which will require the drivers to “coast” at some tracks in order to replenish battery power.
Even the FIA’s recent about-turn on swearing – described by Russell on Thursday as “ridiculous” and “strategic” on the part of the president – fails to get a rise. Verstappen was the first victim of the president’s clampdown last year when he was handed what amounted to a community service order for swearing in a press conference in Singapore.
“Honestly, I’m not interested anymore,” he says. “I live my life. As soon as I leave the paddock here, I don’t think about it. I did my stuff on the Nordschleife. I have other projects going on with GT3 that I’m really passionate about. My [simulator] racing activities with Team Redline. I’m busy. That keeps me away from all the gossip or potential stuff that goes on here. I don’t have any interest.”
Anything that gets in the way of racing is of no interest to him. Even Brad Pitt. Verstappen says he hopes the new Hollywood film F1, released next month, is a success, but adds “it is not something which really excites me personally”, confirming that he declined to film extra scenes with Pitt himself. “We spoke about it, but at the end of the day, it didn’t really materialise. But that’s fine. It’s not why I’m here.”
The irony, I say, is that controversy is the lifeblood of F1. His spicy on-track battles with Lewis Hamilton in 2021, or Norris last year? His furious row with “cry baby” Russell last year? Netflix and F1 must be desperate for him to engage?
“Yeah, but then we get punished for it,” he says. “So that’s it. I don’t want to get into ‘you said this, he said that’ arguments anymore. It’s always then written up as a big controversy. I talk when I need to talk. But in general, I prefer just to live quiet, you know?”
Perhaps fatherhood has changed Verstappen after all.
