Gary Anderson outlines the change Red Bull ‘must’ make for Max Verstappen to be ‘more consistent’ in 2025

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Max Verstappen is hoping to keep his 2025 championship chances alive as he enters the second half of the season.

The Dutchman is 69 points behind Oscar Piastri heading into the Belgian Grand Prix. While he has collected four pole positions and two wins, Verstappen has been outperforming his car, which has proven to be difficult to handle throughout 2025.

The 27-year-old has been frustrated by the RB21’s lack of progress and has found it tough to drive, even with it being so suited to his driving style. Verstappen has lost faith in the technical department, leading him to call for internal changes.

Red Bull will be very different at Spa-Francorchamps after the sacking of Christian Horner as team principal. It has been reported that Verstappen was pushing for Horner’s powers to be limited or for him to be outright replaced.

The team hope to improve the car’s performance with new upgrades in Belgium. Helmut Marko says Red Bull cannot afford a ‘disaster’ practice session with the updates, but Gary Anderson has seen a bigger problem which ‘must’ be addressed.

Gary Anderson says Red Bull ‘must’ make RB21 more driver-friendly to improve Max Verstappen’s results

The biggest problem Red Bull has faced in 2025 has been the results of the second car. Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have struggled to extract any performance out of the RB21, with the latter only scoring seven points in the car since his promotion to Red Bull from Racing Bulls.

This has left Red Bull 288 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship, with just one car performing not being enough to return the team to the top. Anderson says the team must make their car more ‘driver-friendly’, which would make them a two-car team and could help Verstappen.

He said via The Race: “The fact Red Bull is second on my performance rankings but fourth in the constructors’ championship shows it is the epitome of a one-car team.

“Having one driver doing all the heavy lifting is not the way to win the constructors’ championship because Verstappen can only drive one car at a time.

“With Christian Horner now removed as team principal, Red Bull needs to regroup and open its collective eyes to the reality of what’s going wrong. I’m not blaming Horner for this, but sometimes you need a major shock to wake everyone up and shake them into action.

“This means the key improvement Red Bull must make is producing a car that is more driver-friendly. If that’s achieved, it can become a two-car team again and Verstappen might even be faster and more consistent.”

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Laurent Mekies could be key in helping Red Bull to improve the performance of the second car

Horner’s sacking could potentially lead to improvements with the second RB21. Laurent Mekies has replaced him as team principal and CEO, and he knows Tsunoda well from his time at Racing Bulls.

Red Bull fans are begging Mekies to help Tsunoda as he struggles to find confidence out of the car. The Frenchman knows the 25-year-old’s talent and he certainly will not neglect him during his stint with the team.

Mekies could save Tsunoda’s career as he faces dropping off the grid come the end of the season. Improving the Japanese driver’s performance would also benefit Verstappen with stronger data, which in turn could keep his title hopes alive.

Red Bull are discussing ‘internally’ designing equal cars for the 2026 F1 regulations. It is a change that Tsunoda desperately needs, but only time will tell if he will still be with the team next season.