Following 24 Grands Prix and six sprint races, the tally stands at two points in Norris’ favour. In a closely fought contest, Max Verstappen just missed out on clinching his fifth Formula 1 title in a row, coming up short against McLaren’s Lando Norris. The question that inevitably arises is the timing and location of the Dutchman’s loss of the world championship.
Former Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko gives a response in an exclusive interview with the RTL TV channel and casts his eyes to the upcoming season, which is full of uncertainty.
Comeback that never happened
The ‘miracle comeback’ did not happen (unfortunately for many F1 fans); Max Verstappen did not win the Drivers’ Championship title, which would have been the greatest comeback in Formula 1 history. And yet, the 28-year-old has once again proven that, world champion Lando Norris or not, he seems to be the benchmark in Formula 1 for a lot of pundits and fans of Formula 1.
“Max is in a class of his own, as he has proven once again with his racing and passing this year,” said former Red Bull boss Helmut Marko in an interview with RTL (reported on by sport.de) in Germany.
“Without the technical package, even the best driver cannot become world champion,” confessed the Austrian.
“Formula 1 exit” Hamilton “lost and dejected”
Marko explains where Verstappen lost the 2025 World Championship
Verstappen entered the season finale in Abu Dhabi still in mathematical contention and won the race with characteristic authority.
Yet, even that victory was not enough. Norris secured third place, sealing his first world championship and ending Verstappen’s bid for a fifth consecutive crown. According to Marko, the deciding factor was not the final race, but a crucial moment months earlier; a moment that defined the trajectory of Red Bull’s challenging 2025 season.
Wolff identifies Verstappen’s 2026 “big advantage”
Why Red Bull’s fightback fell short
The 2025 season was one of sharp contrasts for Red Bull Racing. What began as a year of persistent struggles gradually turned into a comeback narrative, but one that came just too late.
In the early months, the RB21 proved difficult to understand and even harder to optimise. Marko acknowledges that various misjudgments in setup and development cost them vital points.
“There were several moments where we didn’t get the setup right,” he explained, pointing out how the team repeatedly missed the operating window of the car.
Schumacher manager robbed in violent home attack
Hungarian Grand Prix ‘the most painful’
The most damaging event, however, came at the Hungarian Grand Prix. “The most painful was Hungary,” Marko said.
“We were completely off track, and Max barely managed to finish ninth. I think that was the decisive and most painful result.”
In a season ultimately decided by two points, that underperformance stands out as the moment where the title slipped away.
At one stage in August, Verstappen was 104 points behind Oscar Piastri, then the championship leader. Few believed he could mount a serious recovery. But after the summer break, Red Bull progressively unlocked the potential of the RB21. Verstappen returned to dominating races such as Monza and Baku, often appearing untouchable.
Despite that resurgence, the damage from the first half of the year proved too great. By the end, the tally fell agonisingly short, reinforcing Marko’s belief that the missed opportunity in Hungary was the turning point.
Norris ignored clear team orders in Abu Dhabi
Norris’s Rise: ‘A Worthy Champion in 2025’?
While Verstappen delivered a remarkable comeback, Lando Norris produced the most complete season of his career. Marko is unequivocal in his respect for the new champion.
“Norris is a worthy world champion,” he said, highlighting the composure and speed Norris displayed after a challenging mid-season period.
Norris began the year trailing his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, and made a notable mistake in Montreal. Yet, as Marko observed, he rebounded strongly, delivering a series of mentally disciplined and high-quality performances in the second half of the campaign.
“He recovered and drove some fantastic races, clearly outshining Piastri,” Marko stated. The Englishman, once questioned for his temperament under pressure, demonstrated he could withstand and overcome the demands of a championship fight.
Italian media scathing of Ferrari in end of season reviews
A New rulebook, A new era… and plenty of guesswork
With the sweeping 2026 regulation changes approaching, Helmut Marko acknowledges the obvious: nobody really knows what is coming.
New power unit rules, revised aerodynamics, and the end of the current ground-effect era all promise a competitive shake-up. Or, as Marko puts it, “The ground effect has been laid to rest,” which sounds more like a eulogy than a technical explanation.
What comes next is a landscape of uncertainty, teams poring over simulations, designers hoping their chosen aerodynamic concept isn’t secretly an aerodynamic disaster, and fans preparing to pretend they understand whatever new terminology the FIA introduces.
Despite the unknowns, Marko remains confident that Red Bull is well-positioned. With roughly 2,000 staff members working on the next-generation car, the team is leaving no stone unturned and possibly stress-testing a few more stones along the way.
“We have exquisite and amazing employees for Max,” Marko noted, suggesting a quiet assurance that all 2,000 of them are firmly aligned on the goal of delivering a car capable of fighting at the front.
Whether the RB22 ends up as a masterpiece or a puzzle for Verstappen to solve remains to be seen.
The last straw which set Dr. Helmut Marko’s Red Bull Racing demise
NEXT ARTICLE – IndyCar Wins Long Fight for FIA Recognition
FIA relent over Indycar recognition – Indycar is North America’s premier single seater racing series but for many years has been treated by the FIA as inferior to its own Formula One feeder series F3000, GT2 and now F2.
The biggest race on the North American calendar is held in May at the Indianapolis Speedway and the Indy500 attracts in excess of 300,000 people on race day. The 500 mile long race on the two and a half mile oval was part of the FIA F1 world drivers championship between 1950 and 1960, although the race and the Indycar series are governed by their own regulatory body.
Whilst in recent years a number of ex-F1 drivers have made the transition to Indycar, including Marcus Ericson, and Romain Grosjean to name but two and the news in November broke that Mick Schumacher will be racing in the series in 2026.
F1 drivers winning the Indy500
The benchmark for gaining a Grade A license to race in Indycar is based on experience and a points based system, which is less stringent than the FIA’s own super license required for F1. In days of yore, drivers would compete in different series either side of the Atlantic but in modern F1 history few ex-Indycar drivers make the trip across the pond.
One of the reasons being is that its tough for them to gain the required points based on the FIA’s poor ranking of the Indycar series. Yet with Indycar being a spec series (where all the cars are the same) usually a wider range of drivers are able to win races each season, given its based on talent on not who has the best car.
Formula One’s Alexander Rossi made the transition to the US series after a short spell in F1, he went on to win the blue ribbon event the Indy500 at the centenary running of the race in 2016. Marcus Ericson too after years of back of the field running for Sauber won at the brick yard, but was robbed of a second victory on the last lap by Joseph Newgarden in 2023.
In F1’s golden era, there were a number of Formula One champions who made their ay across to Indiana to win “The greatest spectacle in motor racing.” Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Jacques Villeneuve all became F1 World Champions and Indy 500 winners and Fernando Alonso attempted it three times, but failed to cross the yard of bricks finishing line first…READ MORE ON THIS ARTICLE
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