Verstappen and Red Bull take action: meeting held after China

At Red Bull, the situation is slowly starting to worry. After a 2024 season in which they were caught up – despite their lead at the start of the year – and even overtaken, the Austrians started 2025 really behind schedule. McLaren who undoubtedly dominates with two victories and two pole positions in as many Grands Prix.

Max Verstappen for his part, he is trying to make up for lost time with the equipment provided to him. And inevitably, the four-time reigning world champion always manages to extract the best from it, even if it remains insufficient to hope to compete against Lando Norris et Oscar piastri.

« After two race weekends, we can say that the characteristics and competitiveness of the RB21 are as follows: we are behind McLaren and the car is difficult to drive, even in terms of settings., " assumes Helmut Marko in his column for Speed ​​Week.

These errors were confirmed by the results on track. In Australia, while Oscar Piastri's mistake allowed him to grab second place, he was unable to do better than 4th in China, where he was even behind George Russell and his Mercedes. Further proof that the RB21 is not as well-designed as its predecessor and that it lacks performance, while on the other side of the garage, Liam Lawson only lasted two weekends before being fired – for his own good, some would say internally – and demoted to Racing Bulls, leaving his place to Yuki tsunoda.

"We analyzed how and when we would have a car again to play for victory."

The Milton Keynes team isn't up against the wall, but the sporting situation is far from ideal. With Max Verstappen alone for nearly two years, and all the instability that comes with the second car, Red Bull is actively seeking solutions to its problems.

With this in mind, the Milton Keynes management decided to shake things up by organizing a meeting with Max Verstappen in particular. On the agenda? Many points, but one most important of all: competitiveness. Will they be able to regain it, and quickly?

« After returning from China, a meeting was held in Milton Keynes, continues Helmut Marko. During this meeting, we examined the following questions: How and when will Red Bull have a car to compete for victory again? It was a good discussion between Max and the engineers. We were able to show Verstappen the general direction of the car's development and the concrete developments that will be made to it."It remains to be seen whether this was enough to reassure the world champion and, above all, whether the development will go in the right direction, at the risk of the season becoming very long for Red Bull...

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