Verstappen: I will do everything I can to win. I hate losing

In an in-depth interview with F1.com, Verstappen spoke candidly on a number of matters, from his on-track mindset to time spent with family and a lot in between, of which we publish the highlights below:

Max Verstappen: “I don’t feel like I have any weaknesses – and I of course will never admit to it anyway! But I’m also very open-minded because I know I can always be better, but I also know it’s very hard... I know over a single weekend, people can have unbelievable performances, but it’s about how you can keep very good performance the whole year.

Max: “That has to do with a lot of stuff. I don’t want to go into too much detail, as I’m of course giving away stuff. As a driver, you have to be on top of your game every single time. You need to find what works for you as every single driver is different in their approach, but you do have to understand what works for you.”

Max: “There have been tough races, questionable moves and moments, but I know what I’m doing, I’m fully in control of what I’m doing. Sometimes, of course with a thought behind it. I’m well in control of what I’m executing on track. Sometimes it’s necessary. I will do everything I can to win. I hate losing. I can acknowledge when someone does a better job, but it’s still not nice to lose. That is the driving factor – we need to be better. Even when we were successful in 2023, we wanted to find more performance. It was something that definitely taught us a lot in 2024.”

“I’m loving it, I have a contract until 2028. After that I don’t want to think about it yet. A lot of things can happen. But for now, I’m very happy with where I’m at. It is always a discussion I had with my dad when I was a kid. I always had this thing that I said ‘we’ll see, whatever’ and my dad couldn’t [understand it]. ‘What do you mean, we’ll see? That’s not an approach.’ And I’d say, ‘but that’s me!’ I don’t like to stress out on things. I don’t like to overthink or overcomplicate stuff. I know when I jump in, whether it’s a go-kart or a car. Once I put my helmet on, I’m on it. That keeps me sane I guess! Just being very relaxed and calm about it. I don’t want to fry my brain about too many thoughts about how I can influence certain things. Now he’s ok. Now he’s like ‘yeah, I think it’s all right!’"

Max: "I needed to be pushed when I was a kid, my dad definitely did that and I’m very happy that he did because it’s made me the driver that I am today. I’m very happy with how my life started in racing, all the way to F1. Sometimes I was a little bit lazy but my dad made me realise what we were doing and what it was for. I’m very thankful for how we grew up and how we got to the top.”

Max: “What works for me is when I go back home, I don’t think about F1 unless I go back to the factory. Of course in the back of your head it’s always there – but it’s very important to be able to switch off. If I think about F1 every single day, you burn out. It’s impossible. For me, it doesn’t work. It’s important to have different challenges also in life, I’m very busy with sim racing, it’s a nice distraction from F1. I want to make that a success as well. Constantly being involved in those discussions with young talent, it’s very exciting. When I go back to the factory, you fully dedicate your time to the team, to find improvements – and of course during race weekends. It’s important to find something else in your life to focus on – and that’s besides of course your normal family life.”

Max: “I know I can’t do it forever. I love racing, competing at the highest level with so many incredible drivers but there will be a day when I want to relax a bit more. You only live once. When you’re at the end of your 30s, early 40s, your body is naturally declining a bit. Of course I can spend that in F1, but I also want to do other stuff. I want to maximise my lifetime on this planet. There are so many more things I want to do in life, have a bit of fun and catch up with my family."

Max: "Nowadays, sometimes my mum or dad calls me, and I’m busy, so I say I’ll call them back later – but I also know there’ll be a day when they are not calling me anymore because they won’t be here. These moments make me realise it’s not all about F1. I want to spend time with them, because from when I was four years old, all of our lives – my family’s life – has been dedicated to me and success and trying to get to F1. At one point, that’s enough – and you have to give back and spend more time with them. At the end of the day, that’s way more important than all the success here. It’s great, I love it, I love to be competitive I love to win championships, I love to win races but at one point, family comes first because people get older – and you really have to savour those moments.”

Max: “For now, I’m very happy with what I’m doing. I’ll try and do it for as long as I can, that I enjoy it and I feel like it’s worth it as well.”