Whilst Red Bull are not having the start to the season they had hoped for, after four rounds and just one race win Max Verstappen is within touching distance of the leader Lando Norris. His eight point deficit to the McLaren driver is the result of the Woking based team having two drivers taking points from each other, although in Bahrain Max’s P6 appeared to cause a drama in the Red Bull garage.

Raymond Vermeulen was seen giving Red Bull’s chief advisor an eyeful following the chequered flag last weekend tearing into Dr. Helmut Marko before storming away. The early paddock theories were that this was due to another lack lustre weekend from the RB21 which in the hands of the world champion could manage just P7 in qualifying, some 6/10ths slower than pole sitter Oscar Piastri.

Worse was to come race day on Sunday, as Verstappen quickly moved up to sixth on the fourth lap. His pit stop to shed the quickly degrading soft tyre on lap ten was a catastrophe and the sign of things to come as the Bahrain Grand Prix unfolded.

 

 

 

Huge row in Red Bull garage

The Red Bull pit stop traffic light system failed to go green and after more than four seconds stationary, Verstappen decided himself it was time to set off. Now some 40 seconds behind the leader, Max set about carving his way through the field. But as the pit stops unwound, the slow pit stop from Red Bull had crucially seen Esteban Ocon moved ahead of Verstappen and the Alpine driver was on much harder rubber set for a long first stint.

Another failure of the Red Bull traffic lights system plagued Max at his second change of tyres which saw any hopes of reaching the podium disappear. Veteran pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz described the scene as it unfolded with Vermuelen storing into the Red Bull garage as the top three driver interviews were ready to take place.

“He [Vermeulen] was remonstrating with Helmut Marko who was just standing there, taking it, and then Raymond stormed off to the back of the garage sort of taking his pass off as he went. Clearly, they are not happy”, Kravitz concluded. As if to fan the flames of a building narrative that the Verstappen camp are furious about the state of the RB21, Dr. Marko then went public Wirth Sky Germany claiming unless the team give Max a car to finish on the podium in the next three races, all hope of his fifth F1 drivers; title will be gone.

“The concern is great,” Marko claimed to Sky Deutschland. “As I said, improvements have to come in the near future so that he has a car with which he can win again. We have to create a basis with a car so that he can fight for the World Championship.”

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Marko fuels verstappen departure claims

Marko went on to reiterate Red Bull’s eggs are in one basket for 2025, where the focus is on Verstappen winning the championship even though Red Bull have little hope of the constructors’ title. The the Red Bull advisor fuelled the rumour mill over Verstappen leaving Red Bull Racing by stating: “I’ve said it many times, Max’s primary goal is the World Championship, and if we give him the car he needs for that, the question of a move [to another team] won’t even arise.”

The 81 year old Austrian had also suggested this week, that the issue of Max enforcing a break clause in his Red Bull contract would be a matter for consideration coming the F1 summer break. Reports emerged of a “crisis” meeting back at Milton Keynes, with Dr. Marko, Christian Horner, the team’s technical director Pierre Waste and Chief engineer Paul Monaghan all present.

Max was rostered this weekend to attend the FIA Thurtsyda press conference, where he was repeatedly asked about the troubles within the Red Bull team. He appeared to suggest Dr. Marko had gone too far when asked why the Austrian had suggested he was leaving the team, the world champion appeared frustrated replying, “I don’t know.”

Verstappen was also forced to comment on the confrontation between Marko and his manager seen on TV in the Red Bull garage, back in Bahrain. “To my knowledge, I think they were having just a conversation about everything, which I think is allowed,” said Verstappen playing down the hype.

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Horner denies “crisis summit”

“Now, if someone speaks up on it, people can always see it in their own way, how people are discussing things. I think we were all left frustrated with the result and the things that went wrong during the race. And I think that’s what my manager Raymond and Helmut spoke about, and even Christian [Horner] came along as well, so they all had a conversation.”

Christian Horner was too keen to dispel the reports that there had been a Red Bull crisis meeting in the week between senior personnel. Speaking in Jeddah, Horner revealed the team had brought the first of this year’s upgrades for the RB21 which appeared to be to Yuki Tsunoda’s liking as he finished each of the Friday practice sessions right behind his team mate.

“It was not a crisis summit,” sighed Horner in a Sky Sports interview. “I mean, if you sit down with your engineers and discuss the race, I wouldn’t describe that as a crisis meeting. The crisis summit was described as the meeting after the race in Bahrain, so you always sit down and discuss these things, and there are engineering solutions to engineering issues.”

Horner insisted “There is not a crisis. We are not where we want to be, and we’ve got some issues with the car that we’re working through, and the whole team is working incredibly hard.

Vasseur tells Hamilton to improve, stop the complaints with a veiled threat of the sack

 

 

 

Can Verstappen hang in there?

“We understand what the issues are, it is introducing a series of upgrades over the coming races to try and address some of those shortcomings.”

Red Bull are expecting that in round nine in Barcelona, the new FIA rules over flexible wings should disadvantage their competitors. Yet Dr. Marko expects another two tough weekends ahead stating, “The races in Jeddah and Miami will be really difficult for us.”

At the current rate of progress Verstappen would be 16 points behind the championship leader come the Spanish Grand Prix. But with the McLaren pair leading the way in terms of pace each race weekend, the gap will be significantly more if one of the boys in papaya can exercise some dominance over the other.

Troublesome Grand Prix set to be dropped

 

 

 

 

MORE F1 NEWS – Report: The exact technical issue Norris is experiencing

What a difference just six weeks makes in F1. As the season opener loomed into sight in Melbourne, Netbet online bookmakers had Lando Norris the strong favourite to claim this seasons’ F1 drivers’ championship at decimal 2.62. Max Verstappen was second favourite but out at 4.33 which Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc just behind at 5.5. These numbers are the multiple of say a £1 bet and express the rate of return someone betting on various drivers would receive.

Lewis Hamilton was next with odds of 6.5 whilst Oscar Piastri in the team the bookies believed would ace the constructors’ a huge 8.0 opportunity. Now Piastri is the bookies favourite having silenced doubters that he lacks the experience of his team mate as the Australian appears to have conquered his issues with understanding tyre wear.

Piastri had a tough start to the year having been out qualified by his team mate in Melbourne, he pushed him hard from the off until late in the race, a driver error coming into the final corners complex saw the Australian beach his car on the wet grass. Oscar recovered to claim a single point for tenth place, but was already almost an entire weekend being the F1 title favourite, whose odds came in even further as F1 headed to China…. READ MORE ON THIS STORY