'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
F1 pundit Ted Kravitz believed that Red Bull driver Max Verstappen's manager, Raymond Vermeulen's anger towards Helmut Marko could be related to their slow pit stops at the 2025 Bahrain GP. The Dutch driver had a tough outing at the Sakhir International Circuit last weekend as he struggled with brake balance issues, and the high track temperatures exposed the weakness of tire degradation of the RB21 as well.
Apart from the car troubles, the four-time F1 world champion also found himself at the receiving end of two slow pit stops from the Red Bull crew, which momentarily put him last in the race.
During his Ted's Notebook segment with Sky Sports F1, Kravitz revealed that Vermeulen was livid with the mistakes and expressed his frustrations at advisor Helmut Marko in the garage.
While appearing on the Sky F1 Show, Kravitz spoke about the slow pit stops, which irked Max Verstappen's manager in Bahrain, and reflected:
Trending
“That was something that I saw. I have seen plenty of times where Raymond Vermeulen or Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner, and Helmut Marko have been discussing situations, but Raymond Vermeulen seemed particularly irked about something, which I think was actually the pit stop problem.
“I think what the Verstappens were annoyed, what Raymond Vermeulen was moaning about and Max said this as well but when everything isn’t so great on the car, at least we need to have good pit stops and good operational things going on.”
Max Verstappen came home to finish P6 in the race and sits P3 in the Driver's standings behind the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Max Verstappen chimes in on the deficit to McLaren
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated that he believed the other teams had sorted out their issues in the winter, apart from the Austrian team, in comparison to McLaren in the 2025 season.
As per Motorsportweek, the 27-year-old reflected on the RB21's changes from last year:
“Others have improved more than we have, that’s clear. Others simply have their things better sorted at the moment. We definitely need to make big steps, but that’s nothing new. It’s not like everything suddenly has changed today.”
The Dutch driver also gave an alarming deficit to the world champions and added:
“Yeah, half a second is a lot… But we’re also really struggling with the car balance. We need to add more grip, and we need to find a better balance. It’s two areas that need improvement."
Despite the myriad of issues, Max Verstappen has won a race in 2025 in Japan and trails by a mere eight points to Lando Norris and still has over 20 races and five Sprints to recover the deficit this year.
