Nico Rosberg wouldn’t be surprised if Verstappen retired from F1 by the time he turns 30, which doesn’t give him long left in the sport.
Verstappen has already achieved nearly everything there is left to achieve in Formula 1.
The Dutchman is a four-time world champion and only Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio have more titles to their name and he’s rapidly catching that trio of drivers when it comes to breaking a variety of other records.
However, Verstappen has made it clear throughout his career that he believes there’s more to life than Formula 1.
Although Yuki Tsunoda has predicted that Verstappen won’t retire until he’s 40, it would be a shock if he decides to extend his career beyond his current contract.
Verstappen’s former performance coach Bradley Scanes was speaking on the Business of Winning Podcast about Verstappen’s future.
He believes that the 27-year-old shares the viewpoint of former Red Bull driver David Coulthard when it comes to enjoying life after F1.
Scanes was talking to journalist Mark Gallagher who explained that when David Coulthard retired from F1, he loved that he would ‘properly eat a meal’ for the first time in 15 years.
When this is put to Scanes, he explains how important an F1 driver’s diet is and how he thinks Verstappen will react when he retires from racing: “Nutrition is obviously a big factor.
“We need to be providing the same efficient energy levels for them to be able to work through a race weekend, so good proteins, good carbohydrates, keeping it super simple, lots of electrolytes for hydration and dehydration.
“But you’re right because you’ve also got to think about the weight limit within the car.
“So, there’s an 80 kg weight limit within that cockpit but that includes the seat and the kit so if the seat weighs anywhere between 1.5 to two kilos and the kit weighs around four kilos potentially, a driver is maximum 74.5 kg if not needing to be lower.
“Max is relatively tall, some of the other drivers are as well and built it can be quite hard to get to that so I definitely get David’s viewpoint.
“And I know it’s the viewpoint that Max shares because he talks about looking forward to finishing and being able to eat what he wants and I think he knows he’ll put on a bit of weight after racing.”
No team in the Formula 1 paddock is more reliant on one driver than Red Bull on Verstappen.
He’s destroyed teammate after teammate since his winning on his debut for Red Bull in 2016.
Liam Lawson is the latest driver tasked with supporting Verstappen this season after beating Yuki Tsunoda to the role as Red Bull’s number two driver.
The young Kiwi is undoubtedly talented and has some similar character traits to Verstappen, but whether he can develop into a similar level of driver is yet to be seen.
Helmut Marko has explained what scenario at Red Bull could see Verstappen retire and team principal Christian Horner will be desperate to keep the Dutchman onside.
Without him, it’s hard to know whether Red Bull could compete for championships no matter how fast their car is.
