On Sunday Max Verstappen was only sixth at the Bahrain Grand Prix, in the fight for the podium the reigning Formula 1 world champion had nothing to report in the victory of McLaren-Pilot Oscar Piatri. The Dutchman was then completely served, which made the alarm bells shrill at Red Bull.
“Everything went wrong. The start, the pace, pit stops – everything,” complained Max Verstappen after his fiasco in Sakhir.
The overheating tires in particular were a “huge problem”. For the 27-year-old, the fourth Grand Prix of the season was all “a disaster”.
In the overall ranking, Verstappen fell behind the winner Oscar Piatri, on leaders Lando Norris in the second McLaren are now missing instead of a point.
No wonder that the worries grow at Red Bull. The Formula 1 racing team fears that Verstappen will soon say goodbye in the event of further Grand Prix disappointments.
The fear that the dominator in recent years could leave the team was “big”, motorsport consultant Helmut Marko confessed to “Sky” on Sunday.
Red Bull is no longer the strongest force in the premier class. After all, Yuki Tsunoda collected his first points in his second Grand Prix in the RB21.
“With such a performance, the World Cup won’t work”
“One thing is clear: we have to make progress. Progresses that do not comment on points, but on the stopwatch. With such a performance, it will be nothing with the World Cup,” Marko put his finger in the wound.
The Austrian knows what kind of consequences this can have: Then the Verstappen contract, which is running until 2028, will soon be worth less than the paper on which it was printed.
In fact, there is plenty of need for action: “In the near future, improvements” with which Verstappen will be victorious would have to come, Marko demanded. “We have to create a basis with which he can fight for the World Cup.”
However, there is not much time: The Grand Prix in Dschidda (Saudi Arabia) continues next weekend.