Helmut Marko reacts to Max Verstappen's heated exchange with his race engineer during 2023 F1 Belgian GP qualifying

Helmut Marko termed Max Verstappen and his race engineer as an old married couple after their heated exchange during the 2023 F1 Belgian GP qualifying.

Verstappen clashed with his race engineer on the radio after narrowly escaping elimination in Q2. The Dutchman wanted to go for two consecutive fast laps but was told to go for one slow lap in between.

With a less-than-perfect final lap, Verstappen was P10 in the session and narrowly missed getting eliminated. The Red Bull driver was expectedly not happy with the execution and complained about the same on the radio. Surprisingly, the race engineer clapped back on the radio as the two had a somewhat strange moment live.

Max Verstappen did shrug off the incident as he smashed the field by securing pole position by 8 tenths of a second during the subsequent Q3. When questioned about the radio exchange by Sky Sports DE, Helmut Marko jokingly termed the duo an old married couple. Happy with Verstappen's turnaround in Q3, the Red bull chief said,

"It was like an old married couple. They argued for a while about when to go. But now everything is all right again. That's Max when he's under pressure or when he doesn't perform as he could because he always wants the maximum. That's one of the traits that makes him so incredibly competitive."

Marko expected that turnaround from Max Verstappen

Talking about Max Verstappen's Q3 lap and the way the Dutchman turned things around, Marko admitted that the lap was as close to perfection as it gets. The Red Bull chief marveled at how the reigning champion tends to deliver the most when the pressure is high.

Revealing that the team half expected this kind of turnaround from Max, Marko said,

"I think he was the best in all three sectors. He had one mistake in turn nine and his first corner was not optimal once as well. But he registers that and Max only makes those mistakes once. When the pressure is on, he delivers."

He added,

"We didn't have a flawless Q2, it was close. But in Q3 Max 'exploded', which was an incredible demonstration. We actually expected that a little bit,"

While Verstappen did put together the fastest lap in the session, the pole position will go to Charles Leclerc due to the Red Bull driver taking a grid-penalty for a new gearbox unit. Verstappen will start the race from P6 and will be hoping to script another charge through the field to win the race.