 "Red Bull's advisor Helmut Marko has slammed Bahrain GP performance. Image: Reuters")
Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing endured one of their most frustrating weekends in recent memory at the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix , raising serious concerns about their Formula One title defence. This has prompted senior advisor Helmut Marko to concede that a World Championship title “won’t happen” if results like this continue.
Verstappen could only salvage a sixth-place finish after a frustrating race at the Sakhir International Circuit, while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda crossed the line in ninth. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris both stood on the podium for McLaren on P1 and P3 respectively, while George Russell of Mercedes took the second spot. After the race, Marko didn’t hold back in his assessment of the team’s performance.
Helmut Marko slams Red Bull’s performance
“With a performance like this, unfortunately, the World Championship won’t happen. It’s a very difficult day for Red Bull, that’s obvious to all of us. We have to get, as soon as possible, performance in the car again and also standards like a pitstop have to work. The car is not the fastest and then the pitstops are not working. That is not acceptable,” Marko said.
The warning comes as Verstappen, aiming to match Michael Schumacher’s record of five consecutive Drivers’ Championships, now sits third in the standings, trailing leader Lando Norris by eight points and second-placed Piastri by five.
Adding to the chaos were pit lane issues, with malfunctioning release lights during his second stop dropping him to 20th midway through the race. Despite everything going against him, Verstappen showed resilience, fighting his way back and overtaking Alpine’s Pierre Gasly on the final lap to secure P6.
“That was at least a positive result considering all the things that went wrong today. This was not the weekend that we wanted, but we have to keep on trying to improve,” Verstappen said.
With the next race in Jeddah just around the corner, Red Bull is running out of time to fix their problems and get back to their best.