Laurent Mekies now facing same ‘baffling’ Helmut Marko problem as Christian Horner at Red Bull

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Red Bull Racing had another weekend to forget at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen has spent the last 18 months extracting the maximum potential out of a Red Bull car that has been becoming progressively less competitive.

His victories at the Japanese and Emilia Romagna Grand Prix were against the odds, and his four pole positions this season have all been at tracks where McLaren should theoretically have been quicker.

Yuki Tsunoda had another difficult race, even though he managed to close the gap to Verstappen in qualifying, which still meant another Q1 exit.

Bernie Collins believes Verstappen might have demotivated Red Bull staff by suggesting that the team are unlikely to win another race this season.

However, the result of the Hungarian Grand Prix suggests that the four-time drivers’ champion knows what he’s talking about.

Verstappen finished ninth, only adding two points to his tally and leaving nearly 100 points behind Oscar Piastri in the standings.

New team principal Laurent Mekies will be delighted that Verstappen has committed his future to Red Bull, but knows the team need to improve quickly to avoid losing the Dutchman in the future.

The role Helmut Marko could play in Verstappen’s future can’t be underestimated, but journalist Jon Noble thinks Mekies will soon come across the same issue Christian Horner previously had with the Austrian advisor.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull team principal and CEO Laurent Mekies

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko’s ‘baffling’ media appearances at the Hungarian Grand Prix

It was put to Noble on The Race F1 Podcast if Marko being asked to stop speaking to the European press was a result of Mekies taking charge at Red Bull.

He responded: “Well, this has been quite baffling this whole Helmut Marko and the media thing.

“On Friday, some Dutch media, German media, Austrian media and TV channels, Helmut Marko told them, I’m not speaking to the media.

“I then tried to clarify this with Red Bull, which was the same situation in Spa, because at the time, actually, this came from Oliver Mintzlaff, that Helmut wasn’t supposed to speak to the press.

“But then at the time, there was a suggestion that Mintzlaff himself would speak to try to clarify things, and then Mintzlaff decided he didn’t want to speak, and then Helmut was given authority to speak, so he started speaking.

“And I do wonder that if here on Friday, because Red Bull had a terrible day, it all looked absolutely appalling, Marko left the garage early and probably thought, well, I’ll just say that I can’t speak to the press because I’ve looked other websites and what kind of comments have been around Red Bull and Helmut Marko has been speaking to some journalists this weekend.

“So, I think this may be a convenient ban in some respects. So I think Laurent Mekies may have the same problem that Christian Horner had sometimes, of finding some Red Bull quotes floating around that he may not like all the time.”

READ MORE: Who is Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko? Everything to know

Helmut Marko questions what went wrong for Max Verstappen at the Hungarian Grand Prix

As soon as Tsunoda started from the pit lane to change some of the components of his power unit, it was always going to be very difficult for him to score points at a track where overtaking is very difficult.

However, even though Verstappen claimed that simply getting through to Q3 was an achievement in itself, fans would have expected him to make progress during the race.

Instead, he could only climb to seventh, and Red Bull’s push to try and get him to do a one-stop ultimately backfired, meaning he finished behind Liam Lawson in the sister Racing Bulls.

Verstappen said Red Bull were in for a ‘rude awakening’ as he disagreed with Marko’s analysis of what was going wrong.

Marko has a ‘suspicion’ over why Verstappen’s car was so slow, but at most races this season, Red Bull have been able to make quick progress across the weekend.

On this occasion, this simply wasn’t possible, and while Marko wasn’t quite as outspoken as usual to the press after the race, Mekies will want to keep a close eye on what he’s saying after every session.