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6x F1 race winner and former BMW driver, Ralf Schumacher, feels that Max Verstappen would leave Red Bull if the upcoming upgrades do not work. The Austrian team had a shocker in Bahrain when Verstappen was up against one issue after the other.
First he lost positions at the start, something that is a rare sight in F1, and then the he had a slow pit stop that cost him multiple positions and left him stuck in traffic. To compound everything, the driver was then put on hard tires that proved to be not as conducive for the track conditions.
To make things worse, the driver's second pitstop was even worse, and when he came out, he was down to P20 on the track. Even though Max Verstappen did the perfect salvage job when he overtook Pierre Gasly to secure P6 for the race, it was still an underwhelming result.
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In the championship right now, the driver has fallen to 3rd position, which is his worst since 2022, and he now trails Lando Norris by 8 points. The gap might not seem that big, but the issue continues to be the car that is just not at the level of McLaren. Talking about the situation Red Bull finds itself in, Ralf Schumacher told Sky Germany that Max Verstappen would leave the team if the planned upgrades in Imola do not work. He said,
"I'm pretty sure that if the upgrade to the car doesn't take effect by Imola and the new engine - I'm just talking about rumours now - doesn't run quite as well, Max Verstappen will definitely leave the team,"
Helmut Marko on Max Verstappen's disastrous race
Helmut Marko was as blunt as he could be after the race in Bahrain and admitted that the situation was critical for the team. The Red Bull veteran talked about the factors that hurt Max Verstappen during the race in Bahrain as he told media, including Motorsport,
“It’s a very difficult day for Red Bull; that's obvious to all of us. We have to get, as soon as possible, performance in the car again and also standards like a pitstop have to work. The car is not the fastest and then the pit stops are not working. That is not acceptable."
He added,
“Very alarming. We know that we are not competitive, and there will be parts coming in the coming races, and hopefully they bring improvement. We have a lot of problems. The main problem is balance and grip. And out of this, so I guess the problems with the brakes came up. And then the normal procedure like a pitstop is not working, so one [issue] comes after the other.”
Max Verstappen's gap to Lando Norris is not as big currently, as the driver is only 8 points behind the Brit. The problem, however, lies with the fact that the Dutch driver doesn't have the car to consistently challenge McLaren, and that's what hurts him in the long run as well.
