Concern is growing at Red Bull about the possible departure of Max Verstappen at the end of the season, according to motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
Following his victory at the Japanese Grand Prix a week ago, Verstappen could only reach sixth place at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, due to problems with the balance and brakes of his single-seater.
Although he is only eight points behind the championship leader, Lando Norris, in the drivers’ standings, Verstappen has not hidden his frustration with the performance of his car.
The 27-year-old driver has a contract with Red Bull until the end of 2028, but Marko revealed earlier this year that there are performance clauses that could allow him to leave earlier.
The concern is great. As I said, improvements must arrive in the near future so that he has a car with which he can win again.
Helmut Marko
Marko added that it is necessary to create a base with a car that allows him to fight for the world championship.
Max Verstappen finished sixth in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, amid complaints about his Red Bull car.
Verstappen’s main complaints center on an imbalance in the car’s handling, which makes it difficult to predict in corners and puts additional stress on the tires, leading to excessive performance degradation compared to his rivals during races.
The Bahrain circuit, particularly demanding on tires, exposed these problems more than any other track so far this season. After winning by 22 seconds on the same circuit last year, Verstappen believes that Red Bull has regressed in the last 12 months.
I feel like we are even worse with the tires this year compared to 2024. This complicates everything.
Max Verstappen
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted that the car’s main weaknesses were exposed in Bahrain, while Verstappen’s sensational performance in qualifying in Japan a week ago provided a solution in the race.
I think ultimately you can mask it a little bit through setup and we were able to achieve that last weekend in Suzuka. But I think this race has exposed some issues very clearly that we need to address very quickly and I think we understand where the issues are, it’s introducing the solutions that takes a little bit longer.
Christian Horner
Similar problems have been evident at Red Bull since last year, and Horner explained that the lack of correlation between the results the team finds in the wind tunnel and the reality of the car on the track has made it difficult to find a solution.
I think the problems are understood. The problem is how the solutions we see within our tools compare to what we are seeing on the track right now; they are not correlated and I think that’s what we need to solve.
Christian Horner
Verstappen has been linked to moves to Mercedes and Aston Martin in the past, but earlier this year he stated that no conversations had been held with the latter team.
