Of course, it is early days and 2028 is quite a ways down the road, but Verstappen's comments did send a little bit of a shockwave.
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Reigning Formula One world champion max Verstappen currently has a contract with Red Bull Racing until the end of the 2028 season. The Dutchman beat seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to the title last year in dramatic fashion in the final lap of the final race. After his crowning, many predict Verstappen to dominate the F1 landscape for years to come, but the Dutchman has said that he did not rule out quitting the sport after the expiration of his Red Bull contract. Of course, it is early days and 2028 is quite a ways down the road, but Verstappen’s comments did send a little bit of a shockwave among fans.
“The plan is to stay here until 2028,” Verstappen said as per Sportsmail. “I am not planning on changing teams. I am happy here and they are happy with me. But I have not made up my mind what I will do after 2028. I might stop,” the Dutchman added. Verstappen made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri) when he was only 17 years old, shocking the sport because he was not old enough to have a driver’s licence at the time. This prompted F1 to enforce a minimum age of 18 for a driver to race in the top division.
“I have been in Formula One since I was 17. It has been a long time. I have done a lot of seasons in F1,” Verstappen continued. “I may want to do different stuff. By 31, I don’t know whether I will have peaked or where the drop-off in performance may have occurred. I want to do other types of races — endurance racing, for example. Maybe I will have had enough of travelling all the time. Maybe I will want an easier life and just to do the races I like,” he added.
Read More – Daniel Ricciardo may be in his final year at McLaren, says former F1 driver
On a steamy day in the Principality, Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in the second practise session ahead of the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix, with Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez rounding out the top three. For the first ten minutes of FP2, Daniel Ricciardo was stuck in the garage while McLaren worked on the rear of his vehicle. After losing the back of the car and smashing into the barriers at Swimming Pool, the Australian quickly raised a red flag. With less than 40 minutes to play, the session was resumed.
Prior to Ricciardo’s departure, Perez set the fastest time of 1m 14.001s, and the Ferraris were the only pair to start on hards, with the others starting on mediums. After the red flag, softs were introduced and the time attack commenced, with the figures plummeting until Leclerc completed the fastest lap of 1m 12.656s, only 0.044s ahead of Ferrari teammate Sainz in P2. Perez of Red Bull was third, 0.379s behind Leclerc, and Verstappen was fourth, 0.447s behind his championship challenger in P4.
