Red Bull fears Max Verstappen exit over car issues, says Helmut Marko

Dominika Jordan
Apr 14, 2025, 06:37 AM ET

Red Bull worried about Verstappen exit over car issues, contract until 2028.

Red Bull Racing/Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull's concerns about Max Verstappen's potential departure are growing, according to motorsport advisor Helmut Marko. Following a victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen finished only sixth at the Bahrain Grand Prix due to car balance and brake issues.

Despite being just eight points behind championship leader Lando Norris, Verstappen has voiced his frustrations with the car’s performance. The 27-year-old has a contract with Red Bull until 2028, but performance clauses may allow for an early exit.

"The concern is great," Marko told Sky Germany. "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."

Verstappen's main complaints center on a car handling imbalance that makes it unpredictable through corners and puts more strain on the tires, leading to excessive performance degradation. The issues were magnified at Bahrain, a track particularly hard on tires. Comparing to his victory by 22 seconds at Bahrain last year, Verstappen said, "I just feel like we are even worse on tires somehow this year. It makes it just very complicated."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner acknowledged the car's weaknesses, saying, "I think this race has exposed some pitfalls very clearly. We understand where the issues are, it's introducing the solutions that take a little more time."

Horner added that a discrepancy between wind tunnel results and track performance has complicated finding a solution. "The problem is how the solutions that we see within our tools compare to what we're seeing on track—they aren't correlating. We've got a strong technical team and I'm confident they'll get to the bottom of this issue," he said.

Verstappen has been linked to moves to Mercedes and Aston Martin in the last 12 months, though he claimed earlier this year that no talks had taken place with the latter.