'Closer to McLaren' verdict issued by Helmut Marko for Red Bull upgrades as Max Verstappen's title challenge hangs in the balance

As Max Verstappen's title challenge this season hangs in the balance, Helmut Marko has claimed that Red Bull's upgrades have closed the gap to McLaren. The 2025 F1 season has been a disappointing one for the Milton Keynes squad.

Unlike the last four seasons, when Max Verstappen had the car capable of fighting for the title, this time around, McLaren has pipped Red Bull in building the best car on the grid. As a result, while the Dutch driver has put together some impressive drives this season, he's still more than 40 points behind Oscar Piastri in the championship.

In order to help close the gap to the front, Red Bull has been executing an aggressive development program where the focus has been on closing the gap to McLaren. As a part of the ongoing development cycle, the team did bring a few minor upgrades to the car this weekend.

Talking to Motorsport, Helmut Marko has revealed that the upgrades have done the job in closing the gap to McLaren. He did, however, admit that Max Verstappen would still be the underdog, as the car is not fast enough to usurp the Woking-based team yet. He said,

“We are closer to McLaren, but they are still the favourites. Hopefully we can find something from the car, but it will be a big challenge. Today the temperatures remained relatively low, let's see what happens tomorrow, when it should be warmer."

He added

"We think it’s not three tenths, but we’re still behind, that’s clear. We’re competitive on pace, but it will all depend on how we manage the tyres on Sunday,”

Max Verstappen's verdict on the first day of running

Max Verstappen, on his part, was more or less satisfied with the manner in which the upgrades behaved. The driver didn't report any issues with the car but felt that it was a bit understeery in the long runs.

The driver was also missing Gianpiero Lambiase this weekend but felt that his replacement, Simon Rennie, got the job done. He said,

"I think it was a pretty clear day. We didn't have any big problems. But yes, we are lacking a bit of pace, there is a bit too much understeer in the car, both in the qualifying simulation and on the race pace. It's something we need to try to work on,”

Max Verstappen has won 5 times at this track, and he has often considered Red Bull Ring as one of his fortresses. It would be interesting to see how the rest of his weekend pans out. The Dutch driver is currently more than 40 points behind Oscar Piastri in the championship, and he would be looking to claw back a few points on the Australian this weekend.

Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli