'Loyal' Verstappen silences all Red Bull F1 exit rumours

Max Verstappen has firmly silenced all rumours linking him with a shock exit from Red Bull, by insisting that he is "loyal" to the Milton Keynes-based team. 

The Dutchman celebrated with the outfit as he secured a fourth consecutive F1 drivers' title in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, despite a challenging campaign. 

Verstappen has dealt with a difficult car and tricky situations off the circuit within the Red Bull camp, which created the rumours of a possible exit. 

Several senior figures, such as Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, are departing the Austrian outfit, whilst a move to Mercedes was speculated several times for the 27-year-old. 

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff spoke about his interest in signing Verstappen several times; however, following his most recent title success, the Dutchman has ended all the gossip.

When asked by select media including RacingNews365 if he ever genuinely considered leaving Red Bull, Verstappen said: "To be honest, I think in your life, every year there are always thoughts going through your head from, how long do I still want to do this? Where do I want to do this? How do I want to do this?

"There are things in your private life that happen, of course, in your racing life. There are always things that you have to deal with and think about. But that's fine. 

"I think in general I'm quite relaxed about these things because it's very important to split your private life and racing life. But it's fine to have these thoughts in your head about what you want to do. 

"But at the same time, I'm also not someone that makes very drastic decisions. I'm just very happy where I'm at, at the moment. I'm very loyal to the team."

Verstappen appreciative

Verstappen has never raced for an F1 team outside of the Red Bull family, having been given a seat in the sister team back in 2015. 

He jumped into the pinnacle of motorsport straight from F3, and became the youngest-ever F1 driver. 

Red Bull promoted him into the main team from the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, where he won on his debut for the outfit. 

Verstappen has great respect for what Red Bull has done for him, and all the emotions he has experienced with them.

"I appreciate, of course, what they have done for me from picking me up out of F3 and giving me an F1 seat and then going through all these emotions over all the years with these key people in the team," added Verstappen.

"So, when there are tough times, it's very easy to say goodbye or forget about it or ignore it. But I think it's actually way more important to actually face them and go through it together and deal with it and just try to just move on from there and focus back, of course, on the performance side of things and have fun out there. 

"That's at the end the most important. If you're not having fun, then there's no point to continue."