Kimi was without a seat towards the end of 2009 when he had just turned 30, because there was no seat left good enough for him on the grid. It is highly possible that there will be no good enough seat for Max after 2025 just as he turns 28, if he chooses to stay at Redbull for one more year to have a realistic chance to win the title one last time in 2025.
It is unbelieve that there is a high possibility of Max choosing to drive a shitbox next year in silver and never win a wdc again, leaving behind the potentially best car of 2025 and Carlos getting that redbull rocket ship and even win the wdc while Newey gets a gardening leave to design a Ferrari for lewis to win his 8th in 2026 at a team in which everyone else whose youth and careers got fucked over just to win a wdc at them.
important question who is the dragon and who is the phoenix
I feel like Max is the dragon and Charles is the phoenix.
But, uh, I just looked up the significance of the dragon and the phoenix in Chinese mythology and, well. That was certainly A Choice by the commentator.