Max Verstappen has been in scintillating form in the latter stages of the 2024 Formula One season and has made it clear that he never lost interest in the sport
Max Verstappen has dismissed close ally Helmut Marko’s suggestion that he ‘lost interest’ in Formula One during Red Bull’s struggles earlier this campaign, with the Austrian claiming the Dutchman shifted his attention towards GT racing ahead of his Nurburgring debut.
The defending world champion finds himself in the thick of a thrilling World Championship fight after slashing the gap to frontrunner Oscar Piastri to merely 40 points, having trailed the McLaren driver by more than 100 following the Dutch Grand Prix in early September.
Following Verstappen’s triumph at the United States Grand Prix – his third win in four outings – Marko offered some fascinating insights to Sky Sports F1. “Max at one stage when we were not competitive, I would say he lot a little bit of interest,” he revealed.
“He was more interested in GT racing, so to keep him in a good mood, I was talking about Nurburgring and things like that. But now that the car is working, and [he had] his success at the Nurburgring.
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“I would say two tenths just came from him because he’s really motivated, he’s enjoying, you don’t hear him shouting, he’s smiling. That’s what you need. It’s too early to say [if he’s in the title fight], but this weekend looks promising.”, reports the Express.
Prior to this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, Verstappen was questioned about whether he concurred with Marko’s assessment. “No, I don’t,” he responded. “Of course, it’s more enjoyable coming to the race weekends like this than knowing that you don’t have a chance to win.”
“But I know for myself that when I sit in the car, I will always try to maximise everything that I have and I give it everything. So even if I’m fighting for P4 or even a P9, I will always try to get the best out of it.”
Diving into the GT racing discussions, he added: “Allowing me to do other stuff, this has been planned already for a long time so it’s not that this has suddenly come on the radar because these things have to be planned well in advance and the preparation for it as well so that it allowed me this year to compete myself in real life.
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“Yeah, that was the first opportunity, but I’ve been doing this also offline a lot, even racing during F1 weekends online, so there’s nothing really that has changed in terms of how professional I approach my race weekends.”
Heading into the Mexican Grand Prix this weekend, Verstappen will be feeling the heat. The four-time world champion has a chance to eat into McLaren’s advantage at one of his strongest tracks, historically speaking, but the 27-year-old needs to be flawless between now and the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi if he is to hunt down Piastri.
