Verstappen: 'Very important to keep the key players in the team'

All the rumours and speculation surrounding Red Bull Racing seemed to make even Max Verstappen doubt his future with the team. Yet, in the paddock in Melbourne, Australia, the Dutchman talks quite differently about the Austrian racing team.

This weekend, the Formula 1 circus touches down in Australia. Max Verstappen initially seemed dissatisfied with the current situation at Red Bull Racing; in Melbourne, he stressed that the team feels like a family to him.

Red Bull Racing is like a family for Verstappen

"I'm happy within the team. It's very important that we try to keep the key players in the team for a longer period of time. Because that's, of course, where the performance is as well. And at the end of the day it's a performance business. It's the same if I wouldn't perform, I wouldn't be sitting here. So I know how that works. It's my intention to be here till the end [of the deal at least]. Because, of course, it would be a great story for me personally also to just see it out till the end because it basically means that I've been part of one family and one team."

Verstappen is keeping the names of those key figures a secret. However, he and Helmut Marko stress that the team must stay together. "Always with successful teams, when you have a good core group of people, it's important to keep them all together, happy and in the same roles."

The Dutchman still feels as comfortable in the team as he did before the Horner saga. "For me it's like a second family." He hopes the focus goes back to racing soon.