Marko: 'Verstappen is the team leader, but he didn't show that there'
Red Bull Contentpool
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
All's well that ends well. Max Verstappen is also world champion in 2024, although it did not always look like it. After the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen himself no longer believed in it at all, which he clearly showed verbally at the time. Helmut Marko was not happy with the way the Red Bull Racing driver reacted at the Hungaroring. But the Austrian team's external advisor also saw that it was a one-off outburst.
Thinking back to another Grand Prix, that of Italy, Marko frankly admits: Everything went wrong there. The strategy, the pit stops, the car was too slow. Then he says of the hot afternoon in Hungary, where a race was finished a few weeks earlier: "There was one race, in Hungary, where he was very frustrated and maybe lost motivation a bit. But he is the team leader and he didn't show that there. That was an incident."
Verstappen worked harder than ever
Because there was absolutely nothing to be said about Verstappen's work ethic, according to Marko. More than ever this year, the Dutchman appeared at the factory in Milton Keynes, where he worked with Red Bull staff on improvement points for the RB20. "He made it clear to the engineers: until I have confidence in the car, it is impossible to go to the limit. His commitment is incredible. He really proved that he is indeed that team leader."
Verstappen said it before to GPblog and repeats it in the paper: this has been Max Verstappen's best season in Formula 1. "But Max has scored a lot of points so many times this year. Even when we had the fourth car of the field."
This article was written in collaboration with Ben Stevens.
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