One former F1 driver has a theory as to why Max Verstappen’s mood may have dipped over the course of the past weeks and months.
1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve said after Baku that Verstappen’s feisty demeanour appears to have gone missing, replaced by a "downbeat" mood.
"He loses a million dollars for every race he doesn’t win," another ex-F1 driver, Ralf Schumacher, told Sky Deutschland, referring to the sorts of bonus incentives typical of Red Bull contracts.
"That’s an unbelievable amount," the German added. "Last year he was so successful so that’s a lot of money he’s missing out on now, on top of the fact that things are no longer going well in sporting terms. And he will lose a lot more if he doesn’t win the title."
Red Bull is feverishly retracing its development steps, all the way back to mid-2023, to get to the bottom of how to cure the 2024 car’s current handling woes.
A big complication for the energy drink-owned team is that while the Dutch driver is under contract through 2028, several exit clauses exist in that deal - and Mercedes and Aston Martin are already openly courting him.
"Max has a strong connection to Red Bull and is very loyal," team advisor and Verstappen mentor Dr Helmut Marko told Bild newspaper. "We put our trust in him when he was 17 and gave him a cockpit. He hasn’t forgotten that.
"But he won’t be driving in Formula 1 like Fernando Alonso when he’s over 40. That’s why he wants to be as successful as possible right now."
Marko openly admits that Verstappen, 26, may theoretically be about to squeeze out of his Red Bull contract. "Every driver’s contract has performance-related exit clauses," the 81-year-old Austrian confirms.
"It is up to us to build him a car that is so good that he cannot and does not want to activate them. In Azerbaijan we were again much closer to McLaren and Ferrari."