Red Bull Racing motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has insisted the team will listen to Max Verstappen’s “wishes and criticism” seriously at a meeting today.
Red Bull Racing motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has insisted the team will listen to Max Verstappen’s “wishes and criticism” seriously at a meeting today.
With recent reports indicating that Liam Lawson would be making way for Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull Racing as Max Verstappen’s new teammate after his 2025 Formula 1 season was off to a rocky start, the New Zealand Herald concludes: ‘After the most brutal Red Bull driver chopping of the lot, Lawson’s future is F1 is not yet done.’
New Zealand has a driver in Formula 1 for the first time since Brendon Hartley raced for Toro Rosso at the end of last decade, yet it is not all good news with the impending announcement that Liam Lawson is set to be dropped from Red Bull Racing.
GPBlog revealed on Tuesday that Red Bull Racing has decided to promote Yuki Tsunoda to become Max Verstappen’s teammate, with Liam Lawson dropping back to Racing Bulls after just two races.
The chaos at Red Bull Racing seems complete, but is it? Despite Max Verstappen’s request to keep Liam Lawson as his teammate, the Austrian team has decided to replace the New Zealander with Yuki Tsunoda with immediate effect.
Red Bull Racing is trailing McLaren and Mercedes after the first two Grands Prix of the year. This is worrying not only with regard to the Austrian F1 team’s chances in both championships, but also in view of the performance clauses in Max Verstappen’s contract. Helmut Marko stresses that it is still early, but that it is vital that Red Bull can offer the reigning world champion a fast car.
With a pregnant girlfriend at home, it was already not expected that Max Verstappen would stay in Asia these next two weeks, until the Japanese Grand Prix is set to begin. While Max Verstappen is flying back to Europe, he will not only spend time in Monaco, as he is set to visit his team’s factory, top advisor Helmut Marko shared.
It was a busy day in the world of Formula 1. As it is a Sprint weekend in China, fans could see two sessions where raw numbers matter and the positions matter, the Sprint and Qualifying. GPblog brings you the best news of the day from the world of F1.
Helmut Marko is highly impressed with Yuki Tsunoda’s recent performances. The Red Bull Racing advisor has observed notable improvements in the Japanese driver’s approach and consistency, even stating that Tsunoda is in the best form of his career.
Isack Hadjar is unbothered by the reaction of Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko to his crash in Melbourne last week.
The Racing Bulls driver failed to start his first race for the team after losing control of his car in treacherous conditions during the formation lap at Albert Park. A tearful Hadjar was consoled by Lewis Hamilton’s father Anthony, though Marko called the scene “embarrassing” when he spoke to an Austrian television channel later.
Hadjar made light of Marko’s reaction when it was put to him in today’s FIA press conference ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix. “I found it embarrassing, myself,” he admitted.
“Helmut, I had him on the phone a day later and it’s all good. I’ve known him [for] a few years now, I know how he works.
“Also, another point, I think [when he] said that he was speaking German, it was reinterpreted differently. You don’t know about the body language, I didn’t see the footage. So I can’t say much.”
The 20-year-old said he was grateful for the support he received after the incident. “I’ve seen all the love from the fans and the people, I did not expect that at all when I binned it in the wall, so that was nice.”
He rebounded “quite quickly” from the emotional low-point. “I would say on Monday already I felt quite a lot better,” said Hadjar ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
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“Especially knowing that it’s a back-to-back weekend so I’ve got to run [again] quite early, not having a month to dwell on it.”
Hadjar’s team mate Yuki Tsunoda pulled off a surprise result by qualifying fifth and was in the hunt for points before pitting too late to change tyres when the conditions changed. However Hadjar drew encouragement from the team’s performance in the first round following pre-season testing in Bahrain.
“I would say that we were surprisingly faster than we thought, looking at Bahrain,” he said. “Of course, in Bahrain, it’s hard to really understand where you’re at in the midfield. You don’t know how much everyone is hiding or not.
“But going into Melbourne the car was really good and straight from FP1 I think I had a really, really nice feeling with the car. I was quite comfortable and I was as close [to] Yuki as I wanted to be, so I think there were a lot of positives in terms of pure performance.
This article will be updated
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