F1 Driver Max Verstappen Hints He Might Leave Over Current Race Weekend Format

Max Verstappen has spoken out about the current race format for Formula One.

The 25-year-old Dutch driver for Red Bull Racing shared his thoughts about the current race formats.

As it stands right now, there is a first qualifier (Friday), which determines the start for the dash (on Saturdays), which then puts the starting lineup in stone for the Grand Prix (Sundays).

There’s also talk about adding an additional qualifying session for the “Sprints” in the season.

However, Max argues that adding that in might actually be too much.

Keep reading to find out more…

During an interview with Portuguese television channel Sport TV, via SI, Max hinted that making that change might push him out and make him want to leave.

“I hope there won’t be too many changes, otherwise I won’t be around for too long,” he shared. “I am not a fan of it at all. When we do all that kind of stuff, the weekend becomes very intense, and we already do a lot of races. But it is not the right way to go about it.”

Max added that while he understood that “they want to make every day at the track exciting, but they should reduce the weekend, and only race on Saturday and Sunday and make those two days exciting.”

“We are heading into seasons where we could have 24 or 25 races and if you then start adding more it is not worth it for me. I will not enjoy that, and even if you change the format, I don’t find that is in the DNA of Formula One to do these kind of sprint races,” he said.

Max went on, saying that “F1 is about getting the most out of it in qualifying and have an amazing Sunday over a long race distance. That is the DNA of the sport and I don’t understand why we need to change that. How do you get even more action? Get the cars closer, and have more teams fighting for the wins. The show would then be great if we had six or seven teams fighting for the win.”

“That would be insane, and then you wouldn’t need to change anything.”

Max just took the top spot and won the F1 Australian Grand Prix over the weekend, with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso picking up 2nd and 3rd places.

If you missed it, you can find out just how the F1 scoring system works for the 2023 season.