Another Formula 1 weekend, another round of fresh speculation surrounding Max Verstappen's Red Bull future - but his response on Thursday in Jeddah has highlighted a unique brilliance to his approach to any exit talk.
A fairly miserable Bahrain Grand Prix weekend for Red Bull, followed by Red Bull advisor and close Verstappen ally Helmut Marko admitting he's worried Verstappen will leave the team, plus what appeared to be a heated exchange between Marko and Verstappen's manager Raymond Vermeulen, inevitably meant Verstappen was going to face a barrage of questions about his future when he arrived in Jeddah.
"I don't know, to be honest," said when Verstappen asked by Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft why Marko is fearing Verstappen's exit.
"I just keep working, keep trying to improve the car now, naturally Bahrain wasn't a great weekend for us.
"I think we were all pretty disappointed with that and we just keep on trying to improve the car. Come up with new ideas to try on the car. Competition is tough.
"That's how I go about my weeks, just trying to improve the situation."
When Croft responded by asking if Marko was getting the wrong end of the stick, Verstappen replied: "I think [you] just focus on commentating, I'll focus on driving. And then you know you don't need to think about any other scenarios."
Across the remainder of that FIA press conference Verstappen repeated his stance that he is solely focused on improving the car, saying everyone at Red Bull was "aligned" on that.
Asked about the heated Marko-Vermeulen exchange, Verstappen said: "To my knowledge, they were just having a conversation about everything, which I think is allowed.
"Now if someone picks up on it, people can always see it in their own way, how people are discussing things.
"But I think we were all left frustrated with the result and the things that went wrong in the race. That's where my manager Raymond and Helmut spoke about, even Christian [Horner, Red Bull team principal] came along, they all had a conversation and that should be allowed.
"We all care at the end of the day, we care about the team, about the people, about results. I think that's quite normal."
Verstappen has the paddock dancing to his tune
Verstappen doesn't care about engaging in speculation or generating headlines but he has a lot of people in the F1 paddock squirming, trying to work out what his situation is, where his head as it, and where his future lies.
It's fascinating to see him stick so rigidly to his stance of not wasting any energy talking about non-performance matters if he can avoid it.
Sure, it's a little frustrating as one of many who would love to unpick Verstappen's situation - but there is something brilliant about watching someone have people dance around to a tune he either doesn't realise or doesn't care that he's playing.
This has been Verstappen's position since the start of the year: focus on driving, comment on driving, comment on his car. The rest is noise.
He engages a lot less in broader topics, he's cut back some stuff he has done with Red Bull, and he has said less in interviews in both his native language and in English. For example, he was leaving the track on media day at Jeddah before 8pm while some drivers still had multiple other commitments.
Verstappen is only in F1 for what he needs to be there for and what matters to him; F1 Thursdays aren't a day where he just wants to hang around making noise.
It's the narrative around that which lurches from one thing to another - as Verstappen says, based on what everyone else comments, not what he says himself.
There's an argument that Verstappen indirectly fans the flames with this approach, but that is neither his intention nor something he cares about. It just reflects how single-minded he is about racing, and he leaves the rest of us trying to follow breadcrumbs that have been scattered in the wind.
Verstappen's not dropping any hints about his future - and if he wanted to, he would. Look at how cleverly he has answered questions previously about Red Bull's driver decisions, for example, in the context of complaints about its car performance and development. If he wants you to be able to read between the lines, he won't make it that hard.
The upshot is a situation whereby Verstappen may be discussing his future in private, and may have made his mind up on leaving Red Bull if he can or staying regardless, or may genuinely have zero interest in such considerations while he is trying to make the most of what Red Bull's given him this year - and nothing he says, will guide us towards which scenario is closest to the truth.
At least at the moment.
