Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has vehemently denied Martin Brundle's theory that Max Verstappen deliberately slowed his pace during the Dutch Grand Prix to send a forceful message to his team.
Lando Norris secured his second career victory at Zandvoort, finishing 22 seconds ahead of Verstappen, the largest winning margin for a driver this season.
Despite Verstappen's early lead from pole position, Norris managed to retake the position and maintain a comfortable advantage throughout the race.
Brundle suggested after the race that Verstappen had intentionally dialed down his pace when he realized that he wasn’t able to challenge his McLaren rival to signal to Red Bull that they needed to improve their performance.
“I would hazard a guess that that was not as fast as Max could go,” Brundle told Sky Sports F1.
“He knew he couldn’t beat Lando and dropping back a bit like that, it’s going to give the factory a hurry up, isn’t it? I’d be pretty sure of that.”
However, Marko dismissed Brundle’s claim, stating that Verstappen was simply driving cautiously to avoid taking unnecessary risks.
“Martin Brundle's assumption that Max was travelling slowly on purpose is not correct, you can't say that,” Marko wrote in his post-race column for .
“But when he saw that Lando was on the move, he didn't take any more risks.”
Marko also explained that Verstappen's pace difference compared to Sergio Perez was due to the different set-ups the two drivers were using.
“ The difference to [Sergio] Perez was simply that he was travelling with a different set-up,” he said.
“We thought that he would slide less with more downforce. But that made him even more vulnerable at top speed, and the tyre wear was still high.”
McLaren’s triumph at Zandvoort has reduced team papaya’s gap to Red Bull in F1’s Constructors Championship to just 30 points with nine races remaining.
Marko acknowledged the threat posed by McLaren but expressed confidence in Red Bull's ability to regain their dominant form.
©RedBull
“If it continues like this, the world championship is in danger,” he admitted. “But we believe that on the one hand, this was a track whose layout was ideal for McLaren.
“On the other hand, the temperatures were also low, so everything came together.
“But it is quite clear that we have to get the car back into balance, our updates have to have an effect, they have to bring something not only in theory, but also on the stopwatch.
“But we have a strong team and that is why I am confident that something will come of it.”
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