Heading into his 200th career Formula 1 race, Max Verstappen is clear he doesn’t want to stick around for No. 400.
At 26 years old, Verstappen is the youngest driver to reach 200 F1 races, and he is achieving this milestone in front of his home crowd at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday.
“No,” Verstappen said directly when asked on Thursday if he could picture himself doing another 200 F1 races, which would be just over eight more seasons.
“So we passed halfway for sure, but it’s been already of course an incredible ride,” he added. “It doesn’t feel like 200, but of course we’re doing a lot of races now in a year, so you add them quite quickly.”
No driver has reached 400 races in F1 yet, although Aston Martin’s 43-year-old Fernando Alonso is set to hit his 395th race weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Three-time defending champion Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull through 2028 and isn’t planning to retire soon, but he seems reluctant to follow Lewis Hamilton’s path. Hamilton will turn 40 next year, switch from Mercedes to Ferrari, and head into his 347th race on Sunday.
One thing that might affect Verstappen’s future decision is the new F1 regulations coming in for 2026.
“Of course, ’28 is still very far away,” he said. “I’m not thinking about a new contract at the moment. I just want to see how it goes, also see the new regulations first, you know, if it’s fun or not.
And then even in ’26, ’27, there’s a lot of time to decide what happens. So I just keep everything open. But yeah, I’m quite easygoing about it.”
Verstappen has been in F1 since making his debut at the record age of just 17 in 2015 with Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso.
