Verstappen slowly letting go of title hopes - Marko

Dr Helmut Marko has admitted that Max Verstappen appears to be slowly giving up on his bid for a fifth consecutive Formula 1 world championship.

The Dutchman seemed unbothered by his penalties at the Spanish GP, which dropped him to tenth place, pushed him almost 50 points behind Oscar Piastri, and left him one penalty point away from a race ban.

When asked by Osterreich newspaper if Verstappen is showing signs of letting go of the 2025 title chase, Marko replied: "That's right.

"I'm trying to cheer him up because we're not giving up yet. But something has to be done with the car."

According to the 82-year-old Red Bull advisor, Verstappen had actually been in good spirits heading into the Barcelona weekend — buoyed by the birth of his daughter Lily and confidence in the latest car upgrade after its debut in Imola.

"He was more relaxed," Marko confirmed, "until Spain. A lot of things happened to him there. They put the wrong tyre on him, he had to give up his position even though he believed he was 100 percent in the right, then there was (Charles) Leclerc's action on the straight.

"At some point, you lose your temper."

Marko dismissed ongoing speculation that Verstappen is trying to trigger an exit clause in his Red Bull contract, though he did concede that the incident with George Russell could have been avoided.

"Max could have handled it much more elegantly," he admitted.

"Alleged exit clauses seem to be popping up everywhere now, but none of that is relevant at the moment," Marko added.

It's believed that Marko met with Verstappen this week in Austria. When asked if the quadruple world champion has calmed down since Barcelona, he responded: "Yes, but that doesn't solve our problem. Our car just isn't fast enough.

"That bothers me even more than Max's actions. We're still three tenths behind McLaren."