Knives are out for Max Verstappen, as Juan Pablo Montoya tells him to shut up or leave Formula 1 forever

The comments come amid increasing noise around Verstappen’s dissatisfaction with the 2026 regulations and the broader direction of Formula 1, with the four-time World Champion repeatedly criticising the racing product and hinting at a future beyond the grid.

Accused of shilling the FOM narrative since day one, speaking to the media team at Casinostgan, after the Japanese Grand Prix, Montoya did not hold back: “If you're unhappy with being an F1, you should leave. Have the courage of your convictions.

"If you're unhappy with the rules, then talk to people instead of threatening that you're going to leave. That’s not going to help that much," added the Colombian motorsport veteran, framing the situation in stark terms, insisting Verstappen must accept reality rather than wage a public battle against the sport.

Montoya said: “If I were him, I’d shut up, deal with it and admit that he's in a shitty car and admit he's frustrated because his car is a piece of crap that is 20 kilos over and it's going to be uncompetitive all year. At the end of the day nobody's bigger than the sport.”

The seven-time Grand Prix winner pointed to parallels outside motorsport to underline his argument: “Look at Tiger Woods, one of the biggest athletes in the world. When he left, somebody else took over as number one. Somebody else was winning. The sport did not end.

“Now everybody says Scottie Scheffler is the king and as good as Tiger. And there's young kids coming through who are winning. There is always someone to replace you.

“Tiger is going to be remembered as one of the greatest. But people still go and watch the tournaments and people still tune in. They do. That's the harsh reality of it. Nobody is irreplaceable, not even Max.”

Montoya went further, suggesting that any attempt to leverage an exit to force regulatory change could backfire badly: “Formula 1 is bigger than Verstappen if he’s leaving it needs to be permanent.

“It's like when you're in a marriage and the other person doesn't want to be with you, what are you going to do? If the other person decides you're not the person they want to spend the rest of your life with, whether you want to try to keep them or not, they're going to be unhappy."

Montoya continued: "However big a person he is, the sport is bigger. The problem with leaving, if you really are just leaving to put pressure on to change regulations, the sport is going to move without you. And when you want to come back, there might not be a place for you. You need to know that when you're leaving, it's for good. I did."

Against the backdrop of Kimi Antonelli’s rapid rise with Mercedes, Montoya also hinted that Verstappen’s next move may already be in motion: "Max should call Toto Wolff who’ll be ready to sign him, that’s if he hasn't done that already. I guarantee you that phone call has already happened. With Kimi winning the last two races, it's the perfect timing to pull that trigger.”

Montoya flung in a reality check that cuts to the heart of the current standoff: “But the problem is if Max doesn't want to stay in F1, then what are they going to do? It is a hard reality.”

But Montoya was on a roll for his paymasters: “Compared with my time the problem is there's too many people with opinions, and too many people listening to those opinions. The opinions of people matter way more than in my time. In my time if you didn't like it, you just had to suck it up."

“I understand the drivers don't like the rules. If you're hired to drive a car whatever the car is, you drive it. The last rules that were said to be terrible surrounded porpoising, which the drivers said was dangerous, that it hurt their backs, that it was unsafe and that they couldn’t see where they were going."

Montoya continued: “That lasted six months with people talking about it non-stop, and then the teams figured out a solution. Most of the bottoming, the porpoising, went away and the rules stayed the same. What are they going to change on the engines?

“They are going to end up limiting the amount of electric power and they're going to reduce where you can deliver the energy. It's the only logical solution. The knock-on effect is less overtaking and then people are going to say this isn’t good. This is the problem. If there’s a knee-jerk reaction to what the drivers are saying, that would cause other issues.

“Remember when the ground effect cars came along and all the drivers complained about the porpoising, saying that it was unsafe, that they couldn't see where they were going, that their backs were getting hurt and Formula 1 came in and changed everything for that?

“Last year's cars were one of the best cars ever built and fastest cars they ever built on the basis of those rules; so how bad was it?” added Montoya.

The remarks come as scrutiny intensifies around Verstappen’s repeated criticism of the rules package, with some in the paddock increasingly viewing his stance as a self-serving pressure tactic, while others see it as a genuine warning to all about the direction of the sport.

Dissent and anger among Formula 1 fans, vloggers, and pundits have been deafening since day one in Melbourne, forcing FOM to cover up criticism on social media. Is this an orchestrated smear campaign against Verstappen for his truth bombs?