Max Verstappen finished sixth in a frustrating Grand Prix of Bahrain while the hopes of the title of Red Bull took a major success. Helmut Marko warned that the championship could move away unless major improvements are made before the next race in Djeddah.
Learn more
Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing have endured one of their most frustrating weekends of recent memory at the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2025, raising serious concerns concerning their defense of the Formula 1 title. This prompted the main advisor Helmut Marko to concede that a world championship title “will not happen” if results like this continue.
Verstappen could only save only sixth place after a frustrating race at the Sakhir international circuit, while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda crossed the ninth line. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris both stood on the podium for McLaren on P1 and P3 respectively, while George Russell de Mercedes took second place. After the race, Marko did not retain his evaluation of the performance of the team.
Helmut Marko slams the performance of Red Bull
“With a performance like this, unfortunately, the world championship will not occur. It is a very difficult day for Red Bull, which is obvious for all of us. We must obtain, as soon as possible, the performance of the car again and also standards like a standard must work. The car is not the fastest, then the fosters do not work. It is not acceptable,” said Marko.
The warning comes while Verstappen, aimed at matching the record of Michael Schumacher from five consecutive pilot championships, is now third in the ranking, the leader of the end Lando Norris by eight points and the second Piastri of five.
Adding to the chaos, there were problems with the lane of the stands, with defective liberation lights during his second stop dropping him in the 20th half of the race. Despite everything that was going on against him, Verstappen showed resilience, fighting and exceeding Pierre Gasly d’Alpine on the last round to secure P6.
“It was at least a positive result given all the things that went wrong today. It was not the weekend we wanted, but we must continue to improve,” said Verstappen.
With the next race in Jeddah just at the corner of the street, Red Bull lacks time to solve their problems and come back to his best.
