Helmut Marko admits Red Bull ‘suspicion’ over what caused Max Verstappen’s dismal Hungarian Grand Prix

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Red Bull suffered their worst race of the 2025 Formula 1 season on pure pace at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen was nowhere to be seen and found himself battling Lewis Hamilton for 11th place at one stage.

He heads into the summer break third in the drivers’ championship and with little hope of being able to achieve much for the rest of 2025.

With teams including Red Bull now focusing on next year, upgrades will be few and far between. The best idea may be to try and have some fun.

Verstappen sent Red Bull a ‘rude awakening’ warning with his poor qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but his issues may have been track-specific.

As early as Friday, Verstappen’s data sent ‘striking concerns’ about an alarming deficit to Lando Norris and McLaren. They have outdeveloped every other team by a mile over the last two and a half years.

READ MORE: Max Verstappen just gave George Russell the ‘upper hand’ in his Mercedes contract talks, according to Martin Brundle

Helmut Marko admits Red Bull have a tyre ‘suspicion’ about Max Verstappen’s Hungarian Grand Prix woes

Bernie Collins spotted something worrying at Red Bull after seeing their mechanics struggle with what to do in terms of setup at the Hungaroring.

Although it’s a short track, it’s also very technical due to its mixture of low and medium-speed corners. Getting the tyres into the right window can be crucial, as Charles Leclerc showed on Saturday.

For most of the season, Red Bull’s concerns have been with a general lack of performance from the RB21, but Helmut Marko had another theory for their failures in Hungary.

The Red Bull advisor pointed the finger at the Pirelli tyres and believes that their struggles are more likely to be a blip than a recurrence.

“The tyres weren’t working,” Marko said, according to SPEEDWEEK. “I think it was only a concern here, and it won’t happen again if our suspicion about the cause is confirmed.”

READ MORE: Max Verstappen reveals the F1 qualifying lap he thinks he will never be able to replicate

Oscar Piastri now agrees with Max Verstappen about the 2025 F1 title fight

The McLaren drivers now have a big margin behind in the race for the drivers’ title. Piastri is 97 points ahead of Verstappen.

It’s more than double the biggest deficit overturned by a driver to win the championship, and rules Verstappen out of the race for a fifth consecutive triumph.

Piastri now agrees with Verstappen and sees that the rest of 2025 will play out as a two-horse race between himself and teammate Lando Norris.

Perhaps the Dutchman can get involved in the odd fight at some races, but he will be focused on finding pace in the long-term over some short-term fun.