Hill: Verstappen should stop now, he's done it

Formula 1 management has been looking at ways to change the sport's weekend format, adding Sprint Races (six will feature in 2023) and now even considering reducing practice sessions to as little as one only, if the Sprint weekend format set to be trialed in Baku at the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix is anything to go by.

Max Verstappen, though, has been vocal about his discontent regarding these changes, insisting he doesn't "find that is in the DNA of Formula 1 to do these kind of sprint races", even threatening to walk away if he finds himself not having fun anymore, which is a strong statement given the level of success he is currently enjoying these days as he guns for his third consecutive F1 Drivers' Crown in a dominant Red Bull RB19.

Damon Hill, F1 driver turned pundit, is bewildered by Verstappen's quitting threats, but believes he should do it now rather than later if he is serious and genuinely doesn't enjoy what he is doing.

"Max's retirement threat is very unusual," Hill told the Daily Mail. "It is kind of strange to hear, isn't it? I mean, what's he gonna do with himself? He should stop now, really. Stop now, he's done it.

"You mentioned fun. I think that's a very important point. Is he having fun, because I sometimes think he's not having fun. I think you have to love what you're doing, otherwise it's a grind.

"I think there's an element of this with Max with him wanting not to waste his time on superfluous things that really are just invented for novelty reasons.

"I think he's that kind of person," he pointed out. "So I can imagine him just saying it because he just thinks 'well, I just come here and want to win Grand Prix. I just want one race to mean something. I don't want to have a half-value race, what's the point of that on your CV?'

"People aren't gonna go 'how many Grand Prix have you won? Now how many Sprints have you won?" the former Williams driver maintained.

"When we do all that kind of stuff, the weekend becomes very intense and we already do a lot of races. I understand they want to make every day exciting," Verstappen said earlier.

"But they should reduce the weekend, and only qualify and race on Saturday and Sunday and make those two days exciting," he suggested.

"We're heading into seasons where you have at one point 24, 25 races, because that's where we're going to head into and if we start adding even more stuff, it's not worth it for me anyway. I'm not enjoying that," the double F1 Champion lamented.

With Verstappen in the form of his life, currently dominating F1 with his Red Bull team, will he actually quit F1 when he knows he can rack up more wins and Championships?