Christian Horner has been the team principal of Red Bull since its inception. That journey started in 2006. Since then, RBR has gone through a lot of ups and downs. Moreover, they had one of the best car designers in the sport, Adrian Newey, who has played a major role in making them a champion team. From 2010 to 2013, the Newey designed cars with Sebastian Vettel steering them were enjoying the hegemony. The German driver won four consecutive F1 Driver’s World Championships. Moreover, the Austrian team kept winning the constructor title until, in 2014, Mercedes dethroned them. Who knew for eight straight years, nobody would come close to beat the German team?
These eight years were very frustrating for Christian Horner’s side. Anyway, things turned in Red Bull’s favor once again when Max Verstappen won the 2021 Driver’s World Championship under controversial circumstances. Since then, the Milton Keynes outfit has regained their hegemony on the grid. However, in 2024, things are starting to fall apart for Horner’s team. Adrian Newey, the mastermind behind Red Bull’s superior cars, announced his departure from the team. Moreover, at present, RBR is dealing with performance issues.
Lately, Helmut Marko Has Added Pressure On Christian Horner
Red Bull had started the season pretty well, winning seven of the first ten GPs. It was all Max Verstappen as his teammate was struggling to beat him. However, in the last five rounds, the Austrian outfit has lost its dominance. As the Dutch racer has not been able to win any, and Sergio Perez has continued to struggle with consistency. Since the two drivers are struggling to win, they have put the constructor’s title at risk. McLaren is only 30 points behind the Milton Keynes outfit at present. Moreover, the orange army also seem to have a faster car that helped Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen by 22.9 seconds at Zandvoort. The defending champion lost at home (Dutch GP), which was generally a track where Red Bull had a better record.
Anyway, Christian Horner is not willing to sound the alarm bells just yet as he believes his team can solve the problem. However, Helmut Marko, the 81-year-old F1 consultant of RBR, believes it is high time to do just that. In an interview with Kronen Zeitung, the Red Bull advisor mentioned that the team boss must show quality now as sugarcoating things won’t help the team anymore. Anyway, Marko feels the team principal has admitted his mistakes too. Somewhere this year, the team has taken a wrong turn in terms of the car’s balance. But they are not the only one to do so as Mercedes and Ferrari have done that too.
Red Bull Advisor Defends Jos Verstappen
Helmut Marko said that McLaren has been lucky as all their upgrades worked for them so far. But the 81-year-old advisor believes that McLaren or other teams won’t be able to beat them as clearly as they did in the Dutch GP. After the race in Holland, Jos Verstappen criticized Red Bull for running different floors for Max and Checo at Zandvoort. This so-called reverse engineering did not sit well with Verstappen Senior.
Later, Helmut Marko spoke in the defense of Jos, saying, “He is an emotional guy.” Moreover, Marko said Jos being Jos, made a statement without proper analysis. However, the RBR advisor believes people should not overestimate Verstappen Senior’s statements. Finally, Marko says that it is true that they have made mistakes. But they must keep faith in the upcoming upgrades.
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