Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko delves into the team’s difficult start to the 2025 F1 season. The Austrian cited “challenging” characteristics of the RB21 as a contributing factor to the team’s struggles.
Red Bull Racing have so far faced a difficult start to the 2025 season. Only two races in and the team have taken the drastic decision to swap drivers. Having failed to get to grips with the RB21, Liam Lawson finds himself demoted.
This comes following the young Kiwi failing to score in the opening two Grands Prix, with reigning champion Verstappen scoring all of the team’s 36 championship points thus far. Lawson’s performances however, are indicative of a larger issue in Red Bull’s 2025 challenger.
“It must work first, and that won’t happen overnight”
Speaking to OE24 following last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the team’s advisor Helmut Marko delved into Red Bull’s struggles. He stated plainly that the RB21 needs to be improved, and highlighted the long process involved.
“I have been better,” Marko replied when asked for his thoughts following the weekend. “Although, our result was worse than our performance. Max [Verstappen] was too cautious with the medium tyres; with the hard ones, he managed to keep pace with the McLarens.”
“Well, our car needs to improve its performance” he retorted when asked if Verstappen would be a safe bet for the world championship. When pushed on the team’s development plans, he confirmed there are plans in place, but would take time to come to fruition.
“A Newey is a Newey”
Marko was also quizzed on the sister team, Racing Bulls’, VCARB 02 performance. With rumours swirling that the sister team have brought the better car, questions have been raised about Red Bull. Marko denied these claims however, while admitting the RB21 is a difficult car to drive.
“It’s true that the RB21 is challenging to drive,” he conceded. “The Racing Bull is more manageable and extremely fast on a qualifying lap. However, during the race, it falls significantly behind the Red Bull Racing car.”
In the wake of the team’s struggles, some have suggested last year’s departure of Adrian Newey played a key role. Having joined the team in 2006, Newey led Red Bull to 6 Formula 1 Constructors’ Championships and 8 Drivers’ Championships.
Following the shock announcement of the highly regarded engineers’ departure last year, questions were raised as to the team’s ability to continue to perform at the front of the grid. This has led to questions cropping up again amidst the team’s difficult start to the season.
The question was posed to Marko, who rubbished these suggestions. While he admitted Newey’s departure was a major loss for the Red Bull team, he backed the team’s current engineers.
“We certainly miss a man like him,” Marko confessed. “A Newey is a Newey. However, we are a team of nearly a thousand people, and the crew supporting him was developed gradually.”
With the decision made on Red Bull’s driver line-up, time will tell if the team can get on top of the RB21’s drivability issues.
