Max Verstappen has played down Helmut Marko’s claim that there are “very big” concerns over his future at Red Bull.
Marko, Red Bull’s 81-year-old motorsport adviser, admitted in Bahrain last weekend that he fears the four-time world champion might walk away unless things at the team improved. The Austrian was speaking after a disappointing race in which Verstappen – who is under contract until 2028 – finished a distant sixth and afterwards complained that “everything that could go wrong did go wrong”.
The 27-year-old was not just unhappy with his car, but also his pit stops, which were uncharacteristically poor from the normally slick Red Bull team.
The Dutch driver’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, was seen in a heated exchange with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner post-race, while senior Red Bull figures Horner, Marko, technical director Pierre Waché, and chief engineer Paul Monaghan were then spotted holding what some observers characterised as a “crisis meeting” in the paddock.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the fifth race of the season, Verstappen said such meetings were perfectly normal and added that he was “happy” at Red Bull.
“Honestly a lot of people are talking about it, except me,” Verstappen said when asked about the speculation. “I just want to focus on my car, work with the people in the team – that’s the only thing I’m thinking about in Formula One. I’m very relaxed.
“I am happy [at Red Bull], I’m just not very happy with, of course, our car. But that goes for everyone. We all want to be better, there’s no secret about that. That’s what we’re trying to improve.
“I think we had really good chats in the past weeks about the car. I think we’re all very much aligned, we’re just trying to make the situation better. It doesn’t change anything.
“I’m not thinking about [rumours], I’m just going race by race. Hopefully it’ll be better than Bahrain, if it can be a bit in the middle of the two [with Suzuka] it will be better.
“It’s out of my hands anyway, if we are not the quickest it’s very tough to fight for a championship. I’m hopeful we can still improve things, but let’s see what we get.
“To my knowledge, I think they were having a conversation about everything, which I think is allowed. I think we were all left frustrated with the result, with the things that went wrong in the race. And I think that’s what Raymond and Helmut spoke about, and Christian [Horner] even came along and they all had a conversation. I think that should be allowed.
“We care, at the end of the day. We care about the team, we care about the people, we care about results. I think that’s quite normal.”
Pressed by Sky Sports commentator David Croft on whether Marko had got the “wrong end of the stick”, Verstappen replied: “I think just focus on commentating and I’ll focus on driving. Then you don’t need to think about any other scenarios.”
Red Bull data does not match up
Verstappen’s denials are unlikely to dampen the speculation. The only thing which will do that is improved performance.
Horner insisted in Bahrain that the team understood the issues with the RB21, but admitted they were having problems with correlation between what they were seeing in the wind tunnel and what they were seeing out on the track. “It’s like telling the time on two different watches,” he said.
It is believed that Red Bull will introduce a sizeable upgrade package this weekend but to say Horner and Waché are facing scrutiny would be an understatement.
If they want to keep Verstappen, Red Bull need to get on top of that disconnect quickly, or at least convince him that they know what they are doing heading into the 2026 regulation change. It is coming up to 12 months now since Adrian Newey announced he was leaving the team, and while their current issues may have originated before that bombshell, it feels more than coincidental that their performances have dipped drastically since then.
Red Bull also badly need to tighten up on operational procedures. Verstappen is renowned for extracting the maximum from his machinery – it was only two weeks ago, remember, that he won in Suzuka thanks to what rival Fernando Alonso described as a “magical” performance in qualifying. What he will not tolerate (let alone his father, the famously short-tempered Jos), are the sorts of clumsy errors in Bahrain which made his life even more difficult.
Of course, there is still the question as to where Verstappen would go if he were to leave. He may be the undisputed top driver in the sport right now, but the answer to that question is not obvious. One suspects room would be found for him somewhere. The onus is very much on Red Bull to sort things out.
Max Verstappen has played down Helmut Marko’s claim that there are “very big” concerns over his future at Red Bull.
Marko, Red Bull’s 81-year-old motorsport adviser, admitted in Bahrain last weekend that he fears the four-time world champion might walk away unless things at the team improved. The Austrian was speaking after a disappointing race in which Verstappen – who is under contract until 2028 – finished a distant sixth and afterwards complained that “everything that could go wrong did go wrong”.
The 27-year-old was not just unhappy with his car, but also his pit stops, which were uncharacteristically poor from the normally slick Red Bull team.
The Dutch driver’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen, was seen in a heated exchange with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner post-race, while senior Red Bull figures Horner, Marko, technical director Pierre Waché, and chief engineer Paul Monaghan were then spotted holding what some observers characterised as a “crisis meeting” in the paddock.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the fifth race of the season, Verstappen said such meetings were perfectly normal and added that he was “happy” at Red Bull.
“Honestly a lot of people are talking about it, except me,” Verstappen said when asked about the speculation. “I just want to focus on my car, work with the people in the team – that’s the only thing I’m thinking about in Formula One. I’m very relaxed.
“I am happy [at Red Bull], I’m just not very happy with, of course, our car. But that goes for everyone. We all want to be better, there’s no secret about that. That’s what we’re trying to improve.
“I think we had really good chats in the past weeks about the car. I think we’re all very much aligned, we’re just trying to make the situation better. It doesn’t change anything.
“I’m not thinking about [rumours], I’m just going race by race. Hopefully it’ll be better than Bahrain, if it can be a bit in the middle of the two [with Suzuka] it will be better.
“It’s out of my hands anyway, if we are not the quickest it’s very tough to fight for a championship. I’m hopeful we can still improve things, but let’s see what we get.
“To my knowledge, I think they were having a conversation about everything, which I think is allowed. I think we were all left frustrated with the result, with the things that went wrong in the race. And I think that’s what Raymond and Helmut spoke about, and Christian [Horner] even came along and they all had a conversation. I think that should be allowed.
“We care, at the end of the day. We care about the team, we care about the people, we care about results. I think that’s quite normal.”
Pressed by Sky Sports commentator David Croft on whether Marko had got the “wrong end of the stick”, Verstappen replied: “I think just focus on commentating and I’ll focus on driving. Then you don’t need to think about any other scenarios.”
Red Bull data does not match up
Verstappen’s denials are unlikely to dampen the speculation. The only thing which will do that is improved performance.
Horner insisted in Bahrain that the team understood the issues with the RB21, but admitted they were having problems with correlation between what they were seeing in the wind tunnel and what they were seeing out on the track. “It’s like telling the time on two different watches,” he said.
It is believed that Red Bull will introduce a sizeable upgrade package this weekend but to say Horner and Waché are facing scrutiny would be an understatement.
If they want to keep Verstappen, Red Bull need to get on top of that disconnect quickly, or at least convince him that they know what they are doing heading into the 2026 regulation change. It is coming up to 12 months now since Adrian Newey announced he was leaving the team, and while their current issues may have originated before that bombshell, it feels more than coincidental that their performances have dipped drastically since then.
Red Bull also badly need to tighten up on operational procedures. Verstappen is renowned for extracting the maximum from his machinery – it was only two weeks ago, remember, that he won in Suzuka thanks to what rival Fernando Alonso described as a “magical” performance in qualifying. What he will not tolerate (let alone his father, the famously short-tempered Jos), are the sorts of clumsy errors in Bahrain which made his life even more difficult.
Of course, there is still the question as to where Verstappen would go if he were to leave. He may be the undisputed top driver in the sport right now, but the answer to that question is not obvious. One suspects room would be found for him somewhere. The onus is very much on Red Bull to sort things out.
