Helmut Marko told Max Verstappen to 'concentrate on F1' after Dutchman was left red-faced
Helmut Marko sent a private message to Max Verstappen after the Spanish Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen has revealed that Red Bull advisor and close ally Helmut Marko sent him a text telling him he should ‘concentrate on F1’ after his native Netherlands were beaten by Austria, the home country of the 81-year-old at Euro 2024.
Expectations were high for Ronald Koeman’s squad heading into the tournament after losing to eventual winners Argentina in the World Cup in 2022, but they could only manage a third-place finish behind Austria and France, squeezing through to the round of 16 by the skin of their teeth.
In their final group game, the Netherlands faced Austria, conceding the winning goal just 10 minutes from the end as Marcel Sabitzer dealt a brutal blow to Koeman’s men. This was not ideal for Verstappen, who explained at the Red Bull Ring on Thursday that he had talked up his nation to Marko ahead of the match.
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Revealing his pre-match prediction, Verstappen said ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix: "I had of course said that the Dutch team would win. He said: ‘It turns out that you are not a football expert, so you concentrate on Formula One.’”
Fortunately for Verstappen, he has an opportunity to bring joy to the Dutch population this weekend. The three-time world champion is looking to collect a third successive Grand Prix victory on Sunday after wins in Montreal and Barcelona, but he will face an uphill battle as Red Bull continue to struggle to keep pace with McLaren.
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Lando Norris was feeling particularly confident heading into the weekend. "A run of wins... I don’t want to be over-confident and say that at all,” he said, before adding: “We could go on and win races. I definitely think that’s possible with how the team are performing and how I’m performing.
"But we’re against one of the best drivers ever in F1 and one of the best-performing teams in F1 and then you have everyone else apart from that who can easily get in the mix too. Everything needs to be executed perfectly well and last weekend everything was not executed perfectly well and that one thing that wasn’t. That’s where it cost us."
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Norris has finished in the top eight of every race this season and on the podium in five of the last six, with that consistency lifting him up to second place in the World Championship. However, while for Verstappen it may seem as though the Brit is breathing down his neck, the gap still stands at 69 points heading into the Austrian GP.
