Max Verstappen issued vital advice over persistent Red Bull problem
04/17/2025 12:30 AM
Max Verstappen has been urged to ignore what is ordinarily a vital piece of equipment in F1 and instead use his experience. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has baulked at what he sees as the consistent problems Red Bull faces with its simulator, instead urging four-time F1 champion Verstappen to ignore its readings. A common Red Bull trait over the past few seasons has been its struggle for pace and balance during Friday in practice, only for Verstappen to dig Red Bull out of a hole with his qualifying performances before going on to deliver an often superb race result. This is what Verstappen did in Japan recently as the RB21 proved tricky to master through practice before Verstappen delivered one of the great all-time pole position laps to steal top spot on the grid by 0.012s from McLaren's Lando Norris. Verstappen then easily converted that into his first win of the season, and despite having an inferior package to Norris. Marko, though, is unhappy with how the simulator numbers are performing. "When the simulator promises us great lap times, we go backwards on the track," Marko told Auto, Motor und Sport. "That was the case two years ago in Monte Carlo and again [in Japan]. I told Max to trust his experience rather than what the simulator says." Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added that in his view, the "best sensor in the car is the driver, and we still manage to get the car into the right working window."
