Max Verstappen is ‘most frustrated’ with Red Bull issue Christian Horner could have easily avoided this season

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Red Bull Racing are approaching crisis mode just four races into the 2025 Formula 1 season.

It’s remarkable to say that considering Max Verstappen stood on the top step of the podium less than two weeks ago in Japan, but that result was very much an outlier as opposed to the norm for the four-time world champion.

Red Bull have witnessed Verstappen dominate F1 over the past few years, and built such an unstoppable car in 2023 that they achieved their first-ever one-two in the drivers’ championship with Sergio Perez.

However, things have slowly fallen apart within Red Bull since that moment, with Verstappen winning his fourth title last year despite the team’s struggles, rather than because of their actions behind the scenes.

Verstappen was making set-up changes the factory didn’t know about, and his victory in Japan relied on him executing the perfect qualifying lap and being faultless at a circuit where overtaking is incredibly difficult.

The Bahrain Grand Prix witnessed concerning talks between Verstappen’s manager and Helmut Marko after the race, with the Dutchman only able to finish P6 after snatching a position off Pierre Gasly on the final lap.

That’s not the position Verstappen wants to be battling in, and team principal Christian Horner has to take responsibility for the 27-year-old’s biggest frustration right now.

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Max Verstappen ‘most frustrated’ that Red Bull didn’t listen to his concerns sooner

Journalist Jon Noble was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast about what happened in the paddock after the race in Bahrain, and Red Bull’s most recent disappointing Grand Prix of the season.

Noble explained: “There was definitely a meeting afterwards that involved Christian Horner, Helmut Marko, Pierre Wache, and Raymond Vermeulen was around in the hut as well.

“I think some people interpreted it as a crisis meeting, some people in the team say crisis is probably a bit too much to label their weekend.

“I think someone suggested it’s more of a shambles of a day, basically, with the car not performing, the pit stops, the balance problems, the brake problems, the overheating.

“I think ultimately the team’s not surprised it struggled here. I don’t think it anticipated that this weekend was going to be anywhere near like Japan.

“It’s obviously exposed big weaknesses in the car. I think it’s obvious that Max is probably a little bit frustrated because he’s been pushed to the team quite hard.

“There were meetings before Japan as well to discuss everything and give his viewpoint.

“I think one of the things that he’s been perhaps most frustrated about, and this goes even back to last year, is the team not accepting the scale of the problem they’re in.

“I think sometimes he’s done such a good job, it’s masked the reality of the situation with the team. So I think it’s the team accepting the issues they’ve got, the team accepting they need to work harder, and I think the team ramping up its efforts to get things sorted.”

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Max Verstappen’s frustrations led to Liam Lawson’s infamous Red Bull stint

Verstappen told Red Bull before the season started that he was aware of the deficit between his team and McLaren.

He said in the build up to the race in Bahrain, via Autosport: “I already told the team during the winter test here that the gap is half a second and that proves to be the case, so I was right in that respect.

“If you look at the entire season, I don’t think we ever really had a chance.”

If Verstappen had this attitude before pre-season started, then Horner’s inability to oversee wholesale changes with the car ahead of the Australian Grand Prix ultimately lies with him.

Verstappen wasn’t happy with Liam Lawson being dropped after two races, not because he had a huge amount of loyalty to the New Zealander, or an aversion to working alongside Yuki Tsunoda.

He was far more concerned with the fact that Red Bull thought replacing Lawson was the answer when the car has been so difficult to drive.

The impact of the loss of Adrian Newey at Red Bull appears to be being felt already by the team, and the timing of their slow pit stops in Bahrain after Jonathan Wheatley started working for Sauber at the start of the month couldn’t have been worse.

The team face a huge conundrum, and Red Bull need to make sure Verstappen doesn’t leave, as right now, he’s by far their greatest strength and asset.