17/04/2025 13:40
A reason why Max Verstappen's manager gave Helmut Marko "a piece of
his mind" has now emerged. Verstappen trailed home a distant sixth
at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix. It was the culmination of a
rough weekend for the four-time F1 champion who, seven days
previously, had capped off his astonishing pole position at the
Japanese Grand Prix with the 64th F1 win of his career. Verstappen
bemoaned continual brake and balance issues with his RB21 around
the Bahrain International Circuit, and during the race was
subjected to slow pit stops due to a wiring loom issue with the pit
gantry that also affected team-mate Yuki Tsunoda. Following the
race, Sky Sports F1 's pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz spotted
Verstappen's manager, Raymond Vermeulen, raging at Red Bull advisor
Helmut Marko. Kravitz said: "At the end of the race, I was waiting
around for some team principals, and Raymond Vermeulen, Max's
manager, came into the Red Bull garage and gave Helmut Marko what
can only be described as a piece of his mind. "He was then
remonstrating with Helmut Marko, and Helmut Marko was just standing
taking it. Raymond then stormed off at the back of the garage,
taking his pass off as he went. Clearly, they are not happy."
Kravitz has now expanded on what he saw and the reason he feels lay
behind such anger from Vermeulen in Marko's direction. Speaking on
the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Kravitz said: "I've seen plenty of times
where Raymond Vermeulen or Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner and
Helmut Marko have been discussing situations. "But Raymond seemed
particularly irked about something which I think was actually the
pit stop problems. "We've got short memories haven't we? Not two
weeks ago, we were saying Max Verstappen is definitely back in the
world championship following his fantastic performance in Japan, on
pole and winning the grand prix. So let's be a bit careful with
this. "Red Bull would have known from testing they weren't as quick
as the McLarens and not as quick as Mercedes. There were pretty
much no surprises. "I think what the Verstappens were annoyed
about, what Raymond Vermeulen was annoyed about, and Max said this
as well, when everything isn't so great on the car, at least we
need to have good pit stops and good operational things going on."