George Russell feels Max Verstappen only ‘whingeing’ to leave F1 early 'because he wants more money'

Mercedes driver George Russell feels that Max Verstappen is threatening to leave the sport because he wants more money.

The Red Bull driver Has a contract with the Austrian team until the end of the 2028 season and is currently earning almost $50 million every season. However, he has been pretty vocal about not continuing in the sport beyond his current contract if the issues plaguing the sport are not attended to.

His rival Russell feels this 'whinging' from Max Verstappen may be a ploy to get more money. The Brit said, as per The Independent:

“I think he is whingeing because he wants more money! He is the highest paid on this grid and rightly so for what he is achieving but I think it is all a big tactic of his, this threat of retirement. I hope he doesn’t – I hope he stays for as long as I stay because I want to fight against the best drivers in the world."

“I think we are in a great place at the moment with the sport. It is challenging, we can’t just keep adding more commitments and races, there has to be a point where if you add something then something has to be taken off. We are adding more races and more commitments and we are working overtime and I’m pretty sure that’s the case at Red Bull."

The Mercedes driver added:

“If we didn’t have any other commitments I’m pretty sure we’d be happy to race every weekend. I am doing what I love. Almost the more the merrier to a certain extent."

"We are the most privileged people in the world to be Formula One drivers. There are a lot of things that come with it. I would happily take more races but less commitment outside of the race weekend.”

Max Verstappen on why he wants to quit F1 post-2028

The Dutch driver mentioned that the process of adding more races to the calendar can be more logical. He feels the current trend is not helping to make his decision to continue in F1 post-2028.

Max Verstappen said:

“It is too many (races) for me but we just have to deal with it. I think it (the calendar) is a bit more logical the way that it is planned at least, I guess that is better for everyone."

"But more things will have to come together for me to make my mind up over whether I stay longer (than 2028) or not. But I think that these things are definitely not helping for sure.”

It will be fascinating to see if Max Verstappen does indeed leave the sport after his contract expires.