Max Verstappen said the reported row in Red Bull’s garage between his manager and Helmut Marko was a result of the team’s frustration at its performance in Bahrain.
The reigning world champion recorded his worst result of the season so far last week. He finished sixth in Bahrain after a last-lap pass on Pierre Gasly for sixth place.Afterward reports claimed Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen was seen having a heated argument with Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport consultant.
Verstappen claimed the pair “were having just a conversation about everything, which I think is allowed.
“Now, if someone picks up on it, people can always see it in their own way — how people are discussing things.”
However he admitted the discussion was triggered by the team’s poor result in Bahrain. “We were all left frustrated with the result and, of course, the things that went wrong in the race. I think that’s where my manager Raymond and Helmut spoke about it — and even Christian came along as well. So they all had a conversation.”
Verstappen won the preceding round at Suzuka and is only eight points behind championship leader Lando Norris. He said it’s “out of his hands” whether his car is competitive enough for him to fight for a fifth consecutive world championship this year.
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“Hopefully it will be better than Bahrain. If we can be a bit in the middle of the two, I think we can already be happy with that and we just move on. The rest is out of my hands anyway.
“At the moment, we’re not the quickest [so] naturally it’s very tough to fight for a championship. But it’s still a very long road.
“I mean, we were sitting around this time last year, race five, and it was all looking great — and then we all know how the season ended up. So I’m hopeful that we can still improve things and we’ll see what we get.”
Marko claimed last week Verstappen could take advantage of an exit clause to leave Red Bull before his current deal expires. Verstappen dismissed further questions over whether he might change teams at the end of the year.
Asked whether he would prefer team members did not speak publicly about his contract, Verstappen said: “I think we had really good chats in the last few weeks already with the people about the car. I think we are all very much aligned.
“Like I said, we’re just trying to improve the situation. It doesn’t change anything. So we’ll just keep going.”
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Chris Horton
17th April 2025, 20:10
4 world titles and they’re arguing after 4 rounds of being a little off.
Doesn’t reflect well, does it.
baasbas
17th April 2025, 23:37
@Chris Horton
Actually… You say that it doesn’t reflect well but if I think about it.. I think it does. In fact it would reflect the absolute worst if nobody cared in this performance oriented hyper-focused world of F1 that it was only 1 year ago when they were ahead of the field.
I’ll go one further. For an organisation known for being able to make drastic decisions* career/people-wise as seen with their drivers, they’re not really pulling any triggers on management level, are they?** They can criticise a driver for making mistakes, sure, but the collective downfall if we can call it that is surely not done by a driver but by management? So I say the opposite, they’re not arguing enough. Argue more and shake up management
*not saying correct decisions
**that’s because the one doing the pulling is probably also the one looking in the barrel
SteveP
18th April 2025, 8:29
There is a saying “Turkeys will never vote for Christmas” – which is also applicable to the way Renault (Alpine) management have behaved in recent years.
They don’t want to see the origin of their problems, because they are the origin of the problems.
Ferdi
18th April 2025, 7:15
I was thinking the exact opposite. There is a reason why Max and his team are this good. It is called determination and demanding the best from your environment. F1 isnt a social gathering of Motorsport lovers. I expect each and every driver to take this as seriously as Max’ team displays. Otherwise they are wasting my time. I expect this to be the pinnacle of Motorsport. That is the reason I watch it and am willing to pay some party to have access to it.
Ferdi
18th April 2025, 7:27
Also, your remark to me comes across as the direct result from Liberty’s entertainment angle for F1, rather than them pursuing a sports angle. They turn this once great sport into some social entertainment thing where we expect all actors to be friends (or foes and add some Horneresque intrigue to gossip about to boost viewer numbers).
If this was the olympics, everyone would understand an athlete has a small window of opportunity in their life and all has to be optimised towards that moment and they give it all to get there, since that is what top sport is all about. Quite frankly if Max’ team was more lenient, they would be quite a disappointment to me. I might as well go look any random amateur racing category.
SteveP
18th April 2025, 8:38
If this was the Olympics, everyone would have the same equipment specification <- there's a clue: Spec series.
Ferdi
18th April 2025, 9:03
That is a bit easy in my opinion. You know what I meant to say about athletes attitudes/mindset.
SteveP
18th April 2025, 10:56
There are two components in a podium finish:
1. The driver
2. The team producing a good car
In this instance, the driver seems to feel the team are falling short and only delivering an average spec car.
Thought:
When LH was constantly winning it was “the car”, when MV was constantly winning it was “the driver”
Discuss.
Ferdi
18th April 2025, 14:01
Two things: firstly I was only talking about athlete (& his/her mngt team) attitude. If you must include material, we can also look at coaches, preparations etc in Olympics. Similar to RedBull, they also must deliver to enable the athlete. And my point is that the athlete (&mngt) should take no prisoners and be ruthless given the athlete’s small window of being at peak level.
Secondly, bringing in the car vs driver discussion is kind of obsolete by now. It is clear Max distracts more from inferior material than any other driver past & present. So, like anyone else he needs a race winning car to win, but he -compared to others- will be able to turn a not so good car into such race winning car. Until the point the team no longer puts wheels on it so to say.. there is a limit to what he can compensate.
As far as Lewis is concerned. Not sure where he sits. He hasn’t shown much ever since the 2014-2021 regulatory period ended. So I can’t say he drives beyond material as there is just no proof so far. To his advantage speaks he has won in two different teams, but that McLaren wasn’t exactly a mid-field car either.
SteveP
18th April 2025, 19:23
You need to look at what he did in the period 2007 – 2013 where the McLaren performance was best described as variable, but LH never had a season without a win.
In the same vein, look at Verstappen 2015 – 2020
Doggy
18th April 2025, 13:44
Not everyone has the same equipment in the Olympics. Particularly for those events focused on high capital investment.
It’s naive to think that athletes who train in the US, for example, have access to all the technology, equipment, and infrastructure than an athlete who live and train in a country like Venezuela. Even for sports who seemingly look like a low cost like swimming.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
18th April 2025, 6:25
I hope Red Bull keep falling back.
Doggy
18th April 2025, 13:53
The mind set, in my humble opinion, should be completely the opposite. I hope that RBR, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Alpine, Aston Martin, etc continue to get better and better. To the point that the line between excellence and their peak performance is almost blurry.
This will not only guarantee better and more competitive races. But also, achieve one of F1’s goal is, which is be the pinnacle of motorsport.
Whether we like it or not, drivers like Max, Lewis, and Alonso Are unique, and they deserve the best possible tool so they can shine.
A lot of people, including myself, always wanted Alonso to have a competitive car so his talent won’t be wasted.
Why wish something like what happened to Alonso to happen to Max as well?
SteveP
18th April 2025, 19:26
Time to remove the FIA and their selective development restrictions, then.
As others have said, impose the cost cap (examine the RBR lunch costs closely) and let them develop to the limit.