Red Bull team adviser Helmut Marko has admitted that “the concern is great” about Max Verstappen’s future with the Formula One team due to its current car struggles.
Reigning F1 world champion Verstappen, who has won all four of his titles racing for Red Bull, struggled to sixth place in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix after failing to challenge the leading McLaren cars all weekend.
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The result left Verstappen third in the drivers’ standings after the opening four races, eight points behind early leader Lando Norris. McLaren has already scored more than double Red Bull’s points, and has its drivers first and second in the world championship.
Speaking to Sky Germany after the race about Verstappen’s future, Marko said: “The concern is great.
“Improvements must come in the near future so that he has a car with which he can win again. We need to create a foundation with a car so that he can fight for the world championship.”
Verstappen’s existing Red Bull contract runs through to 2028, but Marko has previously acknowledged that all of the top drivers on the grid have agreements that contain performance-related break clauses.
Verstappen was previously linked with a potential move to Mercedes, whose team principal, Toto Wolff, remains friendly with the Dutchman’s father, Jos. Wolff held talks with the Verstappen camp last summer, only for both parties to decide not to pursue a deal.
The 27-year-old has also been subject to links to Aston Martin, which categorically denied a report in January that it was considering a move to sign him.
Marko with Verstappen in China earlier this season (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
Although Verstappen was able to clinch his fourth F1 world title last year, Red Bull suffered a loss in form midway through the season as a number of balance issues arose with its car which have carried over to the 2025 model.
The team is currently working on upgrades for the RB21 in a bid to make it easier to drive given its current narrow window for peak performance, but Marko admitted in the Sky Germany interview there was “not much we can do from a technical perspective in the short term.”
Verstappen managed to win the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka with what Red Bull team principal Christian Horner regarded to be one of the finest performances of his career.
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But Verstappen was unable to contend with the McLaren cars in the dry in China or in Bahrain, and only got into the fight for victory in Australia thanks to wet weather and a safety car. He was also helped in Japan by the difficulty of overtaking at the track.
In Bahrain, Verstappen was hindered by a braking problem that he kept reporting throughout the race. He also lost time during his first pit stop due to a wiring loom issue in Red Bull’s pit stop lights that meant they did not change to green when the tires had been changed.
“Everything went wrong that could go wrong,” Verstappen told reporters after the race, explaining that the balance of the car felt “disconnected” and that he struggled to manage his tires.
After qualifying on Saturday, Verstappen said in a media session with Dutch journalists that he was not seriously competing for the world title but “just taking part in this world championship.”
Post-race, Horner was eager to point out to reporters the length of the season still to run, with 20 rounds remaining. “It’s a 24 race championship,” Horner said. “We’re eight points behind in the drivers’ championship and we know we need to make progress very quickly.
“It was important today to score points. He fought for every point that he could in a difficult car today. It’s how they add up at the end of the year that’s important.”
(Top photo: Andrej Isakovic/AFP via Getty Images)
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