- Mercedes driver George Russell has called out Red Bull driver Max Verstappen
- Verstappen is one of the best-paid Formula 1 drivers taking home £40 million every year
- He has threatened to walk away before the lapse of his five-year contract with Red Bull
Mercedes driver George Russell has called out Red Bull driver Max Verstappen saying that his grumbling about F1 2024 calendar is all theatric because he wants more money.
Verstappen is one of the best-paid Formula 1 drivers taking home £40 million every year.
Yet, he has severally threatened to quit the sport citing an extremely tight F1 calendar which leaves him with no time for his social life.
Verstappen said a record-long season for 2024 isn’t convincing him to continue with his F1 career. The 25-year-old has a five-year contract with Red Bull.
However, Russell thinks otherwise. He says that the Red Bull driver is playing chess in his clamour for more pay.
“I think he’s whingeing because he wants more money!” Russell lightly remarked.
He said that Verstappen is still a long way from retiring and his threat to quit is a tactic to get things going his way given his annual pay by Red Bull.
“He’s the highest paid on this grid and rightly so for what he’s achieving but even so, I think it’s all a big tactic of his, that threat of retirement. I hope he doesn’t, I hope he stays for as long as I stay because I want to fight against the best drivers in the world,” Mail Sport reports.
George Russell. Photo/Planet F1
Verstappen hinted that he could drop out of F1 before the lapse of his contract in 2028 following the introduction of sprint races this season.
He says that he loves racing, winning the championship and a tidy salary but with the expanding F1 calendar, he is wondering if Formula One is giving him a good life.
The Red Bull driver’s reservations originate from the ever-expanding schedule and F1’s trials of new formats, like the first sprint in Baku this weekend.
“I always said that even if there won’t be any more sprint races if we keep expanding the calendar and the whole weekend is that long, at one point you question yourself: is it worth it?” Verstappen told BBC Sport.
Max Verstappen. Photo by Planet F1
He said a tight schedule in the calendar will take away all the goodness of racing because it shuts down one’s options to do something different.
With such a schedule, he may reconsider having his life for the next five years with Red Bull.
“I have the contract until the end of 2028, and then we’ll review it again, but I do feel that if it’s getting at one point too much, it’s time for a change,” he said.
F1 implemented the new format for sprint races starting with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which was the fourth race of the 2023 season. A sprint is a shorter independent race which will have its separate qualifying session.
Thus, qualifying for the main Grand Prix now happens on Friday ahead of the weekend’s main. The same knockout system used in the main grid is used in the sprint qualifying session.
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