Max Verstappen says his future at Red Bull is dependent on the team being capable of fighting at the very front of the field, and if that doesn't happen next season, he could be tempted to join a rival outfit once his contract expires.
The Dutchman's season hasn't quite gone to plan, with a string of reliability failures hampering his points scoring ability, putting him way adrift of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo – they're separated by 50 points.
Red Bull meanwhile haven't been able to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari regularly after experiencing correlation issues between track data and their wind tunnel, whilst their Renault power unit remains some way off its rivals.
Verstappen isn't giving up hope that Red Bull can turn things around next year, believing it to be unlikely in 2017, but has warned the team he could be tempted to switch if things don't improve.
"I've always said that there's no reason to leave when I have a competitive car," the 19-year-old is quoted as saying by Eurosport.
"At the moment we are not there where I want to be, but that doesn't mean you have to give up straight away. You have to work hard, but after two, three years without improving, that would be a different story.
"We are working hard to improve but after next year we will see what happens."
Verstappen isn't expecting it to be an easy turnaround though, particularly as Renault isn't due to bring any major upgrades to its power unit until 2018.
"We keep developing, but every team does," he added.
"It will be quite tough to compete against them [Mercedes and Ferrari]. So we have to make sure we do it a bit faster and of course better.
"On the engine side there's not much coming compared to the other teams, so we have to make sure our car is going in the right direction."
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