While the Red Bull Racing stable achieved a zero pointed this Sunday on its lands, with in particular an early abandonment for Max Verstappen, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko displayed a certain pessimism at the idea of playing the titles of world champion.
It hadn’t happened since Bahrain in 2022. After 77 races concluded in the points, the Red Bull Racing stable completed the Austrian Grand Prix with a pointed zero. While Yuki Tsunoda was not up to expectations with the 16th and last place, Max Verstappen saw his race end from the third turn. The fault of a missed braking of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who came to harpoon the quadruple world champion.
While McLaren took the opportunity to make a double in front of the two Ferrari, the Milton Keynes stable is behind in the manufacturer championship. Indeed, its delay on the Orange Papaya single -seaters now reaches 255 points. In addition, if Max Verstappen remains third in the pilot championship, he has 61 units of Oscar Piastri when George Russell got closer to nine lengths.
Affirming that McLaren “has a mattress on the rest of the peloton”, Christian Horner calls on his troops to “focus on a race at a time”, no more. “We don’t even think of the championships, we just focus on the next race in Silverstone and what we can do there,” he launched against the press last weekend.
For Marko, you have to “make a cross on the championship”
Beautiful player, the British leader highlights “the super work that McLaren does”. Questioned by the Austrian chain
OrfHelmut Marko was on the same wavelength. The former pilot underlines “the time gap and the delay of 60 points, which is equivalent to three victories”, adding that “it is incredibly difficult to catch up”. As for hoping for a drop in regime from McLaren to fill part of the delay, the group’s adviser Red Bull sweeps away from the hand, ensuring that the performance deficit “obliges to make a cross on the championship”.
“When you look at McLaren’s performance, there was only Canada that they had a decline when they needed new parts,” said Helmut Marko. This is not something about what we can count again. So no, the situation is not good. If the RB21 should evolve in the coming weeks, optimism is not on the side of Milton Keynes when ever more stables will start to turn to the 2026 project, resulting from a completely different technical regulations.
