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Norris makes Red Bull, Marko and Verstappen panic

Marko irritated with Martin Brundle's incorrect assumption about Verstappen

29 August at 11:18
  • Cas van de Kleut

Helmut Marko thinks that if the remainder of the season goes the way the past few race weekends have, the championship will be in jeopardy. He said that in his column for Speedweek.com. However, Red Bull Racing's top advisor also dares to express hope.

After the last race at Zandvoort, it could be an exciting end to the season. Lando Norris overwhelmingly won Max Verstappen's home race at Zandvoort. The difference between the two was over 22 seconds when they crossed the finish line.

Marko: 'Brundle theory about Verstappen wrong'

Martin Brundle still stated that he thought Verstappen had left the gap so big on purpose, in order to wake up the team. Marko denies: "Martin Brundle's assumption that Max drove slowly on purpose is incorrect. You can't say that. But when he saw Lando disappearing into the distance, he didn't take any more risks."

The balance of the car hasn't improved over the season. According to Marko, this is also where the focus should be: "So it is not so much about developing new parts. We need the predictability of the car that we had at the beginning of the season. It also has nothing to do with the set-up. It's more that something happened with the new parts that made the balance less."

World championship in danger for Verstappen and Red Bull?

Marko also voices his concerns about the remainder of the season: "If it continues like this, the world championship is in danger. But we believe that, on the one hand, this was a circuit that was ideal for McLaren. On the other hand, the temperatures were also low, so everything came together [for McLaren]. But clearly we have to get the car back into balance, our updates have to have an effect. They have to deliver something not only in theory, but also on the stopwatch. But we have a strong team and I am confident that something will come out of it."

This article has been written in collaboration with Matt Gretton