Brundle warns of ‘heavy conversations’ brewing at Red Bull

Red Bull’s 2025 F1 campaign took a sharp down turn in Bahrain last weekend, and Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle believes the cracks are already beginning to show.

Following a weekend marred by poor performance, mechanical gremlins, and pit stop blunders, Max Verstappen’s sixth-place finish shocked F1 insiders and fans alike – and surely triggered alarm bells behind the scenes.

With his keen eye for the sport’s undercurrents, Brundle sensed a reckoning looming for Red Bull, as he expressed in his post-race column for Sky Sports.

“Even Verstappen's talents couldn't save Red Bull from a torrid weekend,” Brundle wrote in his post-race column.

The former F1 racer had watched the race unfold with a growing sense of unease. Verstappen, usually a maestro at taming the most recalcitrant machinery, was visibly wrestling with his car.

"The car looked a handful to drive and he was often seen struggling to slow down and turn in from the key braking zones in all track sessions,” added Brundle.

The race itself was a slow bleed for Verstappen. Trapped behind Pierre Gasly’s Alpine for what felt like an eternity, he was reduced to a predator stalking prey he couldn’t quite catch.

Only in the final laps did he manage to slip past, a hollow victory in the grand scheme.

”After following Pierre Gasly's Alpine for endless laps, in the closing stages he was able to sneak past on the last circuit and claim a distant sixth place, not helped by some lumpy pit stops with equipment issues,” said Brundle.

“Yuki Tsunoda would score his first couple of Red Bull points in ninth but considering the team won the Japanese GP just seven days before, it’s all rather confusing – probably for them too.

“There’ll be some heavy conversations going on.”

Whispers of Crisis

As the Bahrain night settled in, whispers of discord began to ripple through the paddock. Reports of a ‘crisis meeting’ surfaced, with tempers allegedly flaring behind closed doors.

Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, Helmut Marko, didn’t shy away from the gravity of the situation.

“The concern is great,” he told Sky Germany. “Improvements have to come in the near future so that he has a car with which he can win again. We have to create a basis with a car so that he can fight for the world championship.”

His words were a stark acknowledgment of the team’s predicament – Verstappen, now trailing McLaren’s Lando Norris by eight points in the championship, will need more than his prodigious skill to reclaim the throne.

As the paddock shifts its attention to the next round, one thing is certain: Red Bull has little time to right the ship.

Otherwise, those “heavy conversations” predicted by Brundle could quickly turn into high-stakes decisions.