Helmut Marko calls Red Bull RB20 a ‘b*tch’ in ‘only’ Max Verstappen claim

Helmut Marko has labelled the RB20 a “b*tch” that only Max Verstappen can “tame” following Red Bull’s misstep with the upgrades.

The dominant force in the opening rounds of the championship, Red Bull’s long-standing position as the team with the fastest car was threatened when McLaren nailed their Miami Grand Prix updates before Mercedes got it right in Monaco.

Helmut Marko: “Then we took a wrong turn somewhere…”

Red Bull responded with a highly-anticipated upgrade package for the Hungarian GP, but that was described as “not good enough” by Verstappen.

Finishing off the podium in fifth place, the World Champion declared: “With all those upgrades, it’s still not good enough. I do feel frustrated about that. Because I had hoped it would have brought a bit more.

“Everything is working, but not the steps we want to make, I think. It’s just really hard to find a good balance. It’s very easy to go over and then you immediately lose quite a lot of time.”

Despite not winning any of the last four Grands Prix, and only once finishing on the podium in that time, the Dutchman retains the lead in the Drivers’ standings thanks to his early-season form putting him 78 points ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

But even then Verstappen’s results are notably up on his team-mate Sergio Perez’s with the Mexican driver scoring 20 points in last four races to Verstappen’s 58.

It has Marko admitting the RB20 has become a “b*tch”, and one only Verstappen can get a handle on.

“At the start of the season, we had a car that was as balanced as the McLaren is now,” he explained to Auto Motor und Sport. “It could handle all tracks and all conditions.

“Then we took a wrong turn somewhere. The car has become a b*tch that only Max can tame.”

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Marko acknowledges Red Bull’s upgrades, which included a new sidepod and engine cover package for Budapest, have unbalanced the RB20.

“They made the car more and more unpredictable. It became more and more difficult to set it up and balance it,” he said.

That Verstappen still managed to qualify P3 behind the McLarens in Hungary and then put the car on pole in Spa speaks to his talent.

“Those were special qualifying laps from Max. In the race, the superiority was gone,” the motorsport advisor added.

“Like Mercedes at the beginning of the year, we are sometimes fast and sometimes slow depending on the conditions. [Sometimes even in the same race as in Silverstone where it rained in between.”

Red Bull return from the summer break sitting P1 in both championships with Verstappen up on Norris in the Drivers’ standings while Red Bull have a 42-point lead over McLaren in the teams’ challenge.

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