Max Verstappen’s former mechanic is convinced that he will win this year’s Drivers’ Championship title before retiring at the end of the season. It has been a difficult campaign for the Dutchman, who has only managed two Grand Prix victories in nine races. McLaren have dominated at the top of the order with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris proving hard to beat.
It has left Verstappen with a mountain to climb in order to win the Drivers’ Championship for a fifth successive year. He is already 49 points adrift of top spot and McLaren have been looking stronger every week. Helmut Marko recently wrote off Red Bull’s hopes of winning silverware, but a fellow team insider still believes Verstappen can do the business.
Calum Nicholas was Verstappen’s long-serving mechanic before taking up an ambassadorial role at Red Bull earlier this year. He is adamant the Dutchman will mount a stunning comeback before calling it quits at the end of the season.
Speaking over a round of golf with Lucas Stewart in a YouTube video, Nicholas was quizzed on how many titles he feels Verstappen will end his career with.
He replied: “Five. I think Max is going to win the Drivers’ Championship this year and then I think he’s going to call it a day. To not back Max is just like lunacy, I think.”
Nicholas was then asked to clarify whether he had any inside knowledge of the situation, replying: “No, I definitely don’t know anything.”
Verstappen has maintained that he is not looking to emulate Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by racing in F1 until his late thirties or early forties. He is contracted to Red Bull until 2028, by which time he will be 31.
He has already warned that his next step in F1 may be the final move of his career, telling Sky Sports last year: “Everything that awaits in the future is still a long way off and not an issue right now. My next step, if there is one, will be the last.”
Verstappen also suggested that he would spend his entire career with Red Bull despite interest from Mercedes, while Aston Martin have also been linked with an ambitious move for his signature.
“It’s very easy to change teams, but I don’t want my career to be marked in this way,” he added. “I don’t want to be part of four or five different teams.
“I want to build a long and stable relationship with everyone in the team and I want to feel at home somewhere. Changing teams is not really my thing and it is not something I want to do at this stage of my career.”