Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is hoping to prevent a disaster scenario for his team. After the unfortunate outcome of the Spanish Grand Prix, Max Verstappen has accumulated a total of eleven penalty points on his racing license, leaving him just one point away from a suspension. The Austrian warns his star driver to ‘make no mistakes’ during the Canadian Grand Prix, otherwise, the Dutchman could potentially miss Red Bull’s home race in Austria at the end of June.
Max Verstappen left the Spanish Grand Prix not only with a single World Championship point but also with three additional penalty points on his racing license. Just one more penalty point and the Dutchman will be suspended for a Grand Prix. However, Red Bull’s home race, the Austrian Grand Prix, is already scheduled for the end of June. If the Red Bull driver receives penalty points in Canada, Verstappen could find himself sidelined during his team’s home race. Advisor Helmut Marko, therefore, warns his star driver not to undertake any ‘ill-considered’ actions during the upcoming Grand Prix in Montreal.”Now Max must not make any mistakes in the next two race weekends, and of course, he will be told not to do anything rash,” writes Marko in his column for Speedweek. “It would be a disaster if he couldn’t start in Austria.” However, the Austrian does not expect this ‘disaster scenario’ to befall Red Bull. “It’s not really the case that Max makes a mistake in every race. The first penalty points will be dropped after Austria.”
Bitter Pills
According to Marko, the incident in Spain was mainly due to a number of ‘bitter pills’ for the Dutchman during the final stages of the race. “You have to look at the overall situation,” the advisor continues. “Firstly, he was on the hard tire, even though he didn’t want to be. Then there was that evasive maneuver in the first round (after the restart), which almost sent him off the track. Then Charles Leclerc hits the side of his car at over three hundred km/h. This was not given much attention and was also very dangerous. Naturally, the atmosphere was tense as a result.”
The collision with George Russell was therefore just the tip of the iceberg. “Max, who knows the regulations inside and out, said he didn’t need to give up the place. But he was told that he did have to give up the position. Moreover, Russell is not exactly his best friend,” concludes the Red Bull executive.
