Max Verstappen is scaling back his participation in Red Bull's offbeat social media efforts.
Dutch outlet Formule 1 reports that manager Raymond Vermeulen has informed team bosses that the four-time world champion is fed up with the trivial nature of Red Bull's TikTok content.
"Big brands like Oracle, Tag Heuer and Heineken invest a lot of money in global campaigns around Max," Vermeulen explained.
"There are buses driving around the centre of Melbourne with Max's image on it - it all looks very slick. Then it doesn't fit at all when I see a video on TikTok where Max is popping balloons or something.
"You don't make those kinds of videos with a four-time world champion," he asserted.
Going forward, Verstappen's management insists on pre-approving the 27-year-old's involvement in any social media projects before agreeing to participate.
The move coincides with a De Telegraaf report that McLaren CEO Zak Brown recently contacted Verstappen's management team, which includes his father Jos.
Brown confirmed it was a lone call to "explore the market".
Verstappen himself didn't deny the push to limit his role in Red Bull's 2025 social media plans.
"I prefer serious activities," he said. "I prefer that they bring out things that are constructive and that people can perhaps learn something from.
"I want less of these nonsense things for TikTok," he told Dutch journalists. "I've done a lot of that kind of thing now.
"Writing off the caravans with Daniel Ricciardo in Spielberg, for example, was a lot of fun," Verstappen noted. "But the world was a bit different back then than it is now. And you do something like that once. Then it's unique.
"After ten years in Formula 1, there is not so much that is unique to me now. And yes, at some point you have to be a bit more selective."
