Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has credited the team’s rapid improvement in Formula 1 in 2025 to the team’s engineers acting on feedback from Max Verstappen.
Cut adrift from McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri earlier in the season, Verstappen spent the first half of the year wrestling with the unpredictable RB21.
His and Red Bull’s fortunes changed dramatically after the summer break, when several upgrades took Verstappen on a streak of winning three out of four races.
Moving to striking distance of the McLaren drivers, Marko has revealed another reason behind Red Bull’s rapid competitive ascent ahead of Brazil this weekend.
Detailing the changes behind the scenes, he indicated behavioural change by the engineers as one of the major contributors to the team’s unexpected title charge.
“All the changes and adjustments have come together in an optimal way,” Marko is quoted by Formule 1 Magazine.
“That is the reason why the car is now more competitive. Max has an important voice in the technical discussions there with his experience.”
Behavioural change translates into on-track opportunities
One area of criticism from Verstappen and Yuki Tsuonda since the early races has been the RB21’s narrow operating window, with the car lacking consistency at different circuits.
Marko confirmed that this Achilles’ heel has been addressed through the engineers’ behavioural change, with Verstappen’s feedback treated equally as crucial as simulator data.
“It was important that the engineers started listening to Max more,” he continued.
“They did that before, but not to the extent they do now. You know, before that it was more about numbers on the simulator or CFD (computational fluid dynamics).
“Max told the engineers what he needed, got more confidence in the car that way and it became easier to drive. The window in which the car works has become bigger.”
READ MORE – How ‘mercurial’ Max Verstappen has contributed to Red Bull’s resurgence in F1 2025
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