Marko: Horner has to show his quality as team boss now

Dr Helmut Marko has excused Max Verstappen’s father for his post-Zandvoort outburst.

Jos Verstappen, who remains clearly opposed to Christian Horner’s leadership at Red Bull, lashed out after his son Max finished a whopping 22 seconds behind Lando Norris in the Dutch GP last weekend.

"It’s time - if it’s not already too late - to question themselves," Jos had told Bild newspaper. "I’m very unhappy with what’s happening because Max cannot be happy with a car like this.

"Now it is up to Horner to get the team back on track. I’ll be surprised if he does. The whole spirit has to change."

When asked about Verstappen senior’s comments, Red Bull F1 consultant Marko told Kronen Zeitung newspaper: "Jos is Jos.

"He’s just a very emotional guy and he made his statements without a proper analysis. And we shouldn’t overestimate that.

"We’ve had a few unfortunate results recently and were sometimes below our potential," the 81-year-old Austrian continued. "In Zandvoort we had the wrong setup, but of course we clearly feel the pressure.

"We have to improve and the next updates have to have an effect."

Marko actually seems to agree with Jos that team boss Horner will now need to lead the recovery effort. "Horner has to show his quality as team boss now," he said.

"Sugarcoating things won’t help us in this situation. But Horner has also admitted to some mistakes. We took a wrong turn somewhere in terms of the balance of the car. But we’re not the only ones.

"It’s happened to Ferrari and Mercedes too. Only McLaren was spared. Every upgrade worked. We are self-critical, but we have a lot of good people who can turn things around."

Championship leader Max, and his teammate Sergio Perez, arrived at Monza on Thursday declaring that Red Bull now understands the problem with its 2024 car.

Marko said: "I think it will be very close here between McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and us. And another thing is certain - we will not be beaten as clearly as we were in Holland."

He thinks Ferrari is perhaps the overall favourite for victory on Sunday, but warned: "A major update also comes with risk."

The good news from Marko’s perspective is that Perez had a much better weekend at the Dutch GP. "If Checo continues like this, we will still have our sights set on the title," he said.

Max Verstappen, however, is not sure Red Bull’s current pace will be enough even to secure his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship - even though the gap to McLaren’s Norris is still 70 points.

"I’m just doing my best to perform optimally with the material I have, but I can’t control it," he said. "We have to become more competitive and then we’ll see whether it’s enough for the title. Of course I want that.

"The lead is still big, but if it doesn’t work out, it won’t turn my life upside down."

Verstappen even criticised Red Bull’s ongoing specification experiments, as he learns that he will run an older floor initially at Monza. "I don’t think it will be faster because the other teams have improved their cars in the meantime.

"If we’re now downgrading our car in the search for a better balance, I don’t think that is what is going to make the car faster."