Red Bull not favourites for 2025 or 2026 - Brown

McLaren and Red Bull seem to agree that the latter energy drink-owned F1 team will not enter the 2025 season as the favourite.

Appearing on Servus TV before travelling to Abu Dhabi for the season finale, Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko admitted the overwhelming feeling when Max Verstappen won his fourth title in Las Vegas was "relief".

"We are all happy that the decision did not have to be made at the finale," he told the Austrian broadcaster.

Red Bull started the 2024 season strong, but Marko admits "something went wrong" after that.

"We realised too late that we had taken a wrong turn in terms of development," said the 81-year-old. "Later, thank God, we turned things around. But there was turbulence in the team and significant departures. We had to cope with all of that.

"We have found our way again, but not yet to the point where we have a predictable car," Marko added. "So for 2025 we need a racing car that offers a wider working window. Next year will be even tougher because the current regulations will be in their last year and the field will be very close together.

"If we give Max a halfway decent car, then it will still be his class that makes the difference in the end. We want that fifth title in a row. But then 2026 will be an even bigger challenge because we’ll have to deal with completely new regulations and we will be building the engine ourselves for the first time. We’ve got a lot to do."

As for McLaren, the Woking based team is poised to win the constructors’ world championship over Ferrari, after Lando Norris posed the toughest challenge to Verstappen in the drivers’ standings.

CEO Zak Brown warns Red Bull that McLaren will enter the 2025 season with an ambitiously modified car.

"I can reveal that we are going to develop the car considerably," he told De Telegraaf newspaper.

"I am impressed by how brave the team has been with regard to our plans for next year. We are really going to change a lot. In Formula 1, you also have to take risks if you want to be the best. I think you have no choice."

He agrees with Marko that 2025 will be a tough challenge for Red Bull in particular.

"Red Bull has lost a lot of important people and I don’t think we’ve seen the full consequences of that yet," said Brown. "It’s a good team, but you also have to look at the culture and the atmosphere."

Therefore, the American doesn’t see Red Bull as the favourites for either 2025 or 2026.

"For them, 2026 will be an even bigger challenge," said Brown. "They will have their own engine for the first time, and I can’t remember a team with their own engine being directly competitive in the first year.

"That is a big question mark."