Max Verstappen says he is taking time to decide on his future in F1 after the Red Bull driver revealed he was considering retiring from the sport.
After his final race in Japan at the end of March, Verstappen hinted that he was considering withdrawing from F1 due to his dissatisfaction with the sport’s new regulations, amid Red Bull’s poor start to the 2026 season.
However, the Dutchman said he had “nothing new to comment” as he was “busy with other things”, including racing on Germany’s Nordschleife in preparation for the 24-hour race in late May.
“There’s still time and I want to take it slow,” he said ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
Asked in an interview with Sky Italia whether Red Bull’s surge in performance would influence his decision, Verstappen added: “At the moment we’re a little behind last year.”
“The rest, about myself, I don’t know at the moment. What I said in Japan is still the same, there’s still a lot of time.
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Former F1 academy champion Abi Pring thinks it will be difficult for Verstappen to lose Red Bull race engineer Lambiase
“I just want to be here. The team has worked hard to bring updates to the car, so first we have to wait and see what they do. Of course, you never know what other teams have brought.”
“Hopefully we can get out of the midfield battle a little bit and actually go a little further forward.”
Verstappen: Regulation changes are just a ‘tickling’
Verstappen is ninth in the drivers’ championship, failing to finish within the top five in the opening three races. However, he suggests his biggest complaint is with the regulations rather than Red Bull’s performance.
The FIA has tweaked F1’s power unit regulations for the remainder of the season to encourage more ‘flat-out driving’, including changes to energy harvesting and deployment limits.
This should mean less super clipping (when the car slows down on a straight to recharge the battery), less lift and coasting, and therefore less closing speed, and changes have also been made to boost mode following Oliver Bearman’s big crash in Japan, where he had to take drastic action to avoid Franco Colapinto.
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Drivers react to regulation changes F1 has made during the season’s long break
However, Verstappen believes the changes are just a “tickling” and “not what we need to have a full race.”
“I just hope we can make some really big changes next year,” he added.
“The positive thing is that we had some great meetings with F1 and the FIA. This will probably be something of a springboard for the future.”
“In a few years’ time, and maybe I’m not here anymore, I really hope for the sake of future drivers that there will be more input from drivers to the organizers in general, because I think most of the drivers here have a good understanding and a good feeling of what it takes to make F1 a good production, a fun production.”
“In terms of communication, I think this is already a huge step forward. Of course there are changes like this, but at the end of the day F1 is a very complex and political sport, so I think it’s rather ticklish. But I think everyone has tried their best to at least try to do something, but of course it doesn’t change the world.”
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Jenson Button doesn’t believe Verstappen will take time off from Red Bull even after Lambiase moves to McLaren
Verstappen: will have to find a very rare relationship with Lambiase again
During the five-week gap since his last race, Verstappen’s race engineer Giampiero Lambiase surprisingly announced that he would be leaving Red Bull to join McLaren by 2028.
Lambiase has been Verstappen’s only permanent race engineer at Red Bull since his first race in 2016, and Verstappen previously said after winning his first world title in 2021 that he wouldn’t race in F1 anymore if Lambiase wasn’t his engineer.
But he said on Thursday that Lambiase’s move to McLaren had “nothing to do” with his future.
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Craig Slater explains what we know so far about Lambiase’s shock move to McLaren and how this could affect Verstappen’s future
“We have a very honest and open relationship, so it was all good. I wish him the best and there were no hard feelings about it for me,” Verstappen added.
“Of course as a team we are looking to the future and always want to innovate and improve and that is what we are currently working on.”
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George Russell has given his opinion on Verstappen’s future in F1, admitting he would understand if the four-time world champion quit
Verstappen half-jokingly said he would be a “fool” to try to keep the 45-year-old after he received an offer from McLaren and that he would need to build a similar relationship with someone else to continue in F1.
He told Sky Sports F1: “We (me and Lambiase) have a general understanding of each other and the chemistry works very well. And that’s very rare in racing. You don’t often see driver and engineer bond so well.”
“That’s something I have to try again and find out. It’s not easy, but of course sometimes it happens.”
Sky Sports F1 Miami GP Schedule
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The Miami Grand Prix is a unique experience. Check out some of our favorite moments from the past few years.
Friday, May 1st
2:35pm: F2 practice
4:30pm: Miami GP Practice 1 (session starts at 5pm)*
7:25pm: F2 Qualifying
8:10pm: Team boss press conference
8:40pm: Miami GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 9:30pm)
Saturday, May 2nd
2:55pm: F2 Sprint
4pm: Miami GP sprint build-up
5pm: Miami GP Sprint
6:30pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook
8pm: Miami GP qualifying build-up*
9pm: Miami GP Qualifying*
11pm: Ted’s Qualification Notes*
Sunday, May 3rd
5:25pm: F2 Feature Race
7pm: Miami GP Build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
9pm: Miami Grand Prix*
11pm: Miami Grand Prix reaction: Checkered flag*
12am: Ted’s Notes*
*Also held at Sky Sports Main Event
F1 is celebrating a sprint weekend in Miami as the 2026 season resumes. Watch the Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 from 9pm on Sunday. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
