Max Verstappen, according to Red Bull’s Helmut Marko, needs to win the next two races for the team to feel more confident about a title victory.
Max Verstappen, according to Red Bull’s racing advisor Helmut Marko, needs to win the next two Grands Prix before the team can feel secure about their title hopes.
The following two races, in Mexico and Brazil, are expected to favor the Red Bull team, while the final three races may favor Mercedes.
The objective at Red Bull is to win the next two races after extending his championship lead to 12 points in the United States. This would provide them with enough buffer to finish second to Lewis Hamilton in the next three races and still win the championship.
Even if Verstappen wins those two races, Marko explained, it will only slightly increase his chances of winning the championship.
“Only if we win Mexico and Brazil, then it will be 60-40 in Max’s favour,” Marko said in an interview. “We have to win those races.”
Marko believes Red Bull should have led the championship by more than 50 points at this time, except for misfortunes such as their tyre failure in Azerbaijan and two first-lap crashes in the Britain and Hungary.
“We have lost the races in Baku, Silverstone and Hungary through no fault of our own,” he said.
“If you calculate that very carefully, we have missed at least 50 points in these races. The reality is that we are now only twelve points ahead.
“On the other hand, we have survived all those setbacks and we have also been able to cope with the recent progression of Mercedes.”
So far this season, Verstappen has won eight races, three more than Hamilton. However, Marko believes Verstappen will need at least 10 victories by the end of the year to be in contention to win.
“I think we need at least two more wins to be relatively certain or, at least, to be able to go into the last two race weekends with confidence,” added Marko.
“Normally, it is the case that the high-altitude circuits in Mexico and Brazil suit us significantly better, yes. But so much has happened this year. So-called Mercedes circuits turned out not to be Mercedes circuits after all, and the same applied to the Red Bull tracks.”
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