"No matter how much you offer him, he won’t stay"- Max Verstappen might retire way before breaking all F1 records, feels Red Bull advisor

Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko recently confessed that he does not expect Max Verstappen to stick around in F1 long enough to break too many records. Marko emphasized that the 24-year-old will possibly retire from the sport sooner than one might expect.

As reported by PlanetF1, Marko claimed that while the team would like to win more world championships with Max Verstappen, he fears the Dutchman is not necessarily interested in breaking "all records". He said:

“We want to win more titles together. But I doubt if we will see Max drive until he has broken all records. He could make it, but he’s also the type of person who packs his things and leaves when he no longer feels like it. No matter how much you offer him, he won’t stay. And that could happen sooner than we all think.”

Marko also defended his previous comments, comparing the Dutchman to three-time world champion and F1 legend Ayrton Senna. He said:

“Max doesn’t need a build-up phase to be at the limit right away. He can go full steam straight away. That’s just the incredible natural talent, which results in an exceptional base speed. In addition, he has fantastic car control, especially when he’s driving at the limit. That’s why I compared him to Ayrton Senna in his early years, although I didn’t make friends with that. My good friend Gerhard Berger said at the time the comparison was far-fetched, but today he no longer contradicts the comparison between Max and Senna.”

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"Anything is possible", says Max Verstappen ahead of 2022 F1 Italian GP

Max Verstappen set the second-fastest time in the qualifying session ahead of the 2022 F1 Italian Grand Prix on Saturday. He will, however, start the main race further back on the grid with a five-place engine grid penalty. Meanwhile, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc put on quite a show for the Tifosi to set the fastest pace in the session and secure pole, but Verstappen was certainly not surprised.

In a post-qualifying media interaction, the reigning world champion admitted that while Red Bull have been good this weekend, Ferrari seem particularly competitive. Max Verstappen said:

“You could see already the whole weekend they (Ferrari) were very competitive and Spa could have been a bit of a fluke especially for other teams. I think our car was good again, we chose to run a little more downforce than other teams. Maybe over one lap it isn’t the right strategy but I always felt really comfortable on the long runs so I am hoping tomorrow when it is even warmer and tyre deg comes into play that it will be a good one for us.”

“They (McLaren and Mercedes) were quite far off in Qualifying so I am not really expecting them to be a big threat but I am hoping it is not going to become a DRS train because then it becomes really difficult for me to pass them. Let’s see tomorrow, I hope of course nothing happens in lap one and then if we have good race pace, anything is possible.”

Max Verstappen currently leads the drivers' standings with a whopping 109 points-advantage over Charles Leclerc.