Marko’s ‘in a different car’ joke as ‘game-changer’ appears in Verstappen/Red Bull future

Although Helmut Marko believes Red Bull look “good” for 2026, he concedes a lot is riding on the team getting it right with their first F1 engine, including Max Verstappen’s future.

Established in 2021, Red Bull Powertrains collaborated with Honda to supply and operate the engines for Red Bull and their junior team, VCARB, but as of 2026 Red Bull will race their own homegrown power unit supply.

Helmut Marko jokes: He’d be in a different car!

The Milton Keynes team will become an engine supplier in Formula 1’s newest V6 era with parameters that include a 50/50 split between electric power and combustion engine while the V6 will run on sustainable fuels.

The new engines arrive at the same time as new cars, with Formula 1 introducing smaller, lighter cars that will have active aerodynamics in the form of moveable front and rear wings.

For all the teams, a lot is riding on them getting it right in 2026 but, for Red Bull, there’s the added incentive of holding onto their triple World Champion, Max Verstappen.

“Everyone knows that contracts of top drivers have exit clauses that are mainly based on performance,” Marko said in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin’s Christian Menath. “For now, based on the information we have, we are good.

“But with such a new project, things like the battery and the fuel can really be game-changers, so it’s hard to say where we stand.

“You can’t say that Mercedes or Ferrari will be dominant, but within the possibilities we are competitive. As I said, those two factors can be decisive.

“And if the team or the driver is not happy with certain things, it is possible that the driver will leave. For example, the decline after 2013 was also caused by the new regulations.”

Menath responded to that by telling Marko that if things do not work out in 2026, “we’ll rent a roof terrace opposite your office to see what’s going on in your office” as the Red Bull advisor speaks with Verstappen.

Marko quipped back: “That doesn’t necessarily have to be the case, because I don’t think Verstappen will still be in my office then, he’d be in a different car.”

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Helmut Marko reveals ‘clear’ Singapore improvement

Marko also touched on Red Bull’s current troubles with the team winless in eighth races, their longest barren patch since 2020.

Reiterating his belief that while Verstappen was initially able to mask the car’s balance issues, as time went by they too caught up with him with Monza being the team’s lowest point of the season.

But like Christian Horner and Verstappen, he too believes Red Bull are now moving in the right direction.

“You know that these cars with ground effect are very sensitive,” he explained. “You could see that with Ferrari, who came with an update and fell back. Mercedes won twice in a row and then they were the fourth team again. The same goes for Aston Martin.

“The only team that has been consistently at the front since Miami is McLaren. That car is fast on every circuit, with every type of tyre and at every temperature. We had that in the past.

“At one point we took a wrong turn. That was camouflaged for a while by Verstappen’s extraordinary talent, but eventually he couldn’t keep it up. The car became increasingly difficult to drive.

“With minimal technical changes or different tyre types, he was sometimes fast, but sometimes not. It was constantly fluctuating. The balance went from oversteer to understeer. Verstappen could still handle that somewhat, but we fell further and further back.

“Monza was the low point. But in Baku it went a bit better, and Singapore was a clear improvement.”

Despite his winless run, Verstappen is still leading the Drivers’ Championship by 52 points ahead of Lando Norris. Red Bull, however, have lost the lead in the Constructors’ standings where they trail McLaren by 41 points.

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