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Max Verstappen has shared his view on reports of his manager and Helmut Marko being involved in a heated exchange after Bahrain and said that something like this is normal within a team. The race in Bahrain was a complete disaster for the Dutch driver and the team.
The race began with a slow start that meant Max Verstappen lost a few positions on the first lap. This was followed by a slow pitstop that cost driver positions. Then Max Verstappen was put on hard tires by the team, and the tires were just not the right ones for the conditions.
This was followed by another poor pitstop that ultimately left the driver handicapped and in P20. Max Verstappen did eventually make up places and finish the race in P6, but it was a major disappointment. He ended up dropping to P3 in the championship, his worst position since 2022.
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After the race, Max Verstappen's manager was seen having a heated exchange with Helmut Marko. The Dutch driver was questioned about it during the press conference, to which the driver just said that both of them were just having a conversation with each other. He said,
"To my knowledge, I think they were having a conversation about everything, which I think is allowed. I think we were all left frustrated with the result, with the things that went wrong in the race. And I think that's what Raymond and Helmut spoke about, and Christian [Horner] even came along and they all had a conversation. I think that should be allowed."
He added,
"We care, at the end of the day. We care about the team, we care about the people, we care about results. I think that's quite normal."
Max Verstappen on Red Bull's efforts to improve the car
The driver was questioned on how Red Bull has been trying to tackle the challenge in front of them. The car has been a step behind McLaren for the most part this year, and the win in Japan was down to Max Verstappen's brilliance.
Talking about the work that is going on in the background, the driver said that the team is working on making improvements and everyone is aligned and focused on getting the job done. With that being said, there's only so much he could do if the car is not in the right window. He said,
"I think we had really good chats in the past weeks about the car. I think we're all very much aligned, we're just trying to make the situation better. It doesn't change anything. I'm not thinking about [rumors], I'm just going race by race."
He added,
"Hopefully it'll be better than Bahrain, if it can be a bit in the middle of the two [with Suzuka] it will be better. It's out of my hands anyway, if we are not the quickest it's very tough to fight for a championship. I'm hopeful we can still improve things, but let's see what we get."
The driver is only 8 points behind Lando Norris in the championship standings after the first 4 races. However, Max Verstappen would need a better car than what he has right now in order to build a championship campaign this season.
