Max Verstappen ‘will not be happy with Sprint races’ as ‘year out’ theory mooted

Nico Rosberg: Sprint races a ‘massive’ amount of points available

Max Verstappen’s championship lead is shrinking bit by bit in recent races, with his Red Bull seemingly no longer capable of challenging for outright victories as McLaren have stormed ahead.

His 52-point lead might be just enough to scrape across the line if there were only six races left in which drivers can score points, but the addition of three Sprint races means a further 24 points on the table for race winners – drivers down to eighth place score points in the Sprint.

With momentum firmly on Norris’ side in the closing stages of this season, having three Sprint races is thus less than ideal for Verstappen’s ailing lead and, as one of the most vocal opponents of the Sprint format anyway, Verstappen’s perspective on them isn’t likely to be improved in the coming weeks – according to Nico Rosberg.

“Well, Max will not be happy with F1 for bringing in all these Sprint races,” the German driver said on the Sky F1 podcast.

“I mean, those 3×8 points, a win is eight points. That’s a lot of points – that’s massive.

“With the way his car is going, that adds a lot of pressure to Max. Really, I think this could go down to the wire, which is just incredibly exciting.

“Lando can seriously win, and he’s going to get Oscar’s [Piastri] help as well at some point, so then he can win all the races remaining.

“For Max to finish second in every race remaining is so difficult, it’s almost impossible – you have Oscar, you have the Ferraris, you have the Mercedes who, occasionally, is brilliant.

“It’s almost impossible for him to finish second all the time. So, I mean, this is going to be super exciting.”

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Nico Rosberg: A year out appears to be on Max Verstappen’s mind

While Verstappen appears to be taking the challenge of the championship in his stride as he’s accepted the less competitive nature of his Red Bull, the Dutch driver was less than impressed by the FIA’s decision to punish him for swearing in the press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Verstappen had said he “knew his car was f**ked” as he spoke about his car’s performance in Baku, leading to a gentle admonishment from press conference host Tom Clarkson. The stewards investigated and slapped Verstappen with a punishment in which he must perform some “work of public service” – the exact nature of which hasn’t yet been clarified.

Verstappen responded by refusing to engage in the remaining FIA press conferences of the weekend, instead choosing to speak to media via his own sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

It also led the Dutch driver to sow the seed that being punished over matters he views as trivial might just drive him out of the sport.

“These kinds of things definitely decide my future as well, when you can’t be yourself, or you have to deal with these kinds of silly things,” he said.

“I think now, I’m at the stage of my career that you don’t want to be dealing with this all the time. It’s really tiring, you know?

“Of course, it’s great to have success and win races, but once you have accomplished all that, winning championships and races, and then you want to just have a good time as well.

“Of course, everyone is pushing to the limit, everyone in this battle, even at the back of the grid. But if you have to deal with all these kind of silly things, for me, that is not a way of continuing in the sport, that’s for sure.”

Rosberg said he reckoned the way bad language has been handled in the past is more than adequate, rather than needing to find ways to try silencing the more outspoken drivers.

“I understand it needs to be discussed a little, because you have children watching as well. It’s something that needs to be a little bit under control,” he said.

“But I think, with the bleeping out, that works really well, because you want to let the gladiators be the gladiators. So that’s my take on it.”

It was the FIA’s handling of Verstappen, which has led to many other drivers to poke fun at the situation in their own comments and social media, that Rosberg believes the governing body could have fared better.

“Instead of just making community service like that, I think it would have been worthy of discussion and a little warning or something, ‘Please, Max, kind of avoid or whatever’, but to make it such a public thing, it was not ideal from the FIA, I would say,” he said.

Verstappen’s comments regarding the longevity of his career are ones to be taken seriously, Rosberg believes, saying the fact the reigning World Champion is saying such things means the thought of a sabbatical – or something more dramatic – is on his mind.

“For Max, it’s interesting,” he said.

“On his mind, he’s always said that he’s not going to be here another five or 10 years so maybe, with the situation now of his car getting slower and the situation in the team in Red Bull and everything adding up, he’s saying that, ‘Oh, if I win this world championship, I’ve got four in a row, maybe I’ll just take a year off and enjoy life in a different way’.

“It just shows that it’s kind of there in his mind. It doesn’t mean that he’s actually going to do it, but it’s interesting that, for him, he’s a little bit easygoing about the future.”