"This is a black day": Max Verstappen's devastating Austrian GP leaves RB with bleak title hopes

The reigning F1 world champion, Max Verstappen, had a horrendous outing in the 2025 Austrian GP (DNF). In line with this, Red Bull advisor, Helmut Marko, has given a damning verdict on the team's chances with Verstappen in the drivers' championship.

On the very first lap of yesterday's 70-lap race, Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli rammed his car into Max Verstappen's RB21 while going into Turn 3. This meant an early end for both drivers from the race because of the heavy damage to their respective cars.

As Verstappen did not score any points in the Austrian Grand Prix, the McLaren duo of Lando Norris (P2) and Oscar Piastri (P1) have checked out in the F1 drivers' championship race. The Dutchman is stuck on 155 points, whereas Norris is sitting on 201. Piastri, on his end, is leading with 216 points.

In line with all that happened in the 2025 Austrian GP, Helmut Marko has deemed the event as 'a black day' via an interaction with Formula Passion:

"This is a black day, the detachment is almost unpassable. If nothing extraordinary happens, we have to assume that the world championship is now over."

The ongoing campaign has 13 Grand Prix events remaining on the race calendar. Next up is the British Grand Prix that will take place this week at the iconic Silverstone Racing Circuit. In the 2024 edition of the race, Verstappen managed a second-place finish behind then-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

Christian Horner deemed Max Verstappen's Austrian GP DNF as 'frustrating'

While Helmut Marko talked about Max Verstappen's title hopes post the 2025 Austrian GP, the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, also cut out as a 'frustrated' figure via a post-race interaction.

Moreover, the Brit even made it known that Andrea Kimi Antonelli apologised to the team and Verstappen for taking out the latter from the Austrian GP.

In line with this, Horner added the following via the F1TV post-race show:

"A frustrating day, Starting with Max, he had a great start and was well-positioned for Turn 1. At Turn 3 unfortunately Kimi just lost control and wiped him out. Very frustrating… Obviously Kimi’s apologised. It is what it is. I think when you look at the pace, we wouldn’t have fought the McLarens today, but we’d have fought the Ferraris hard, for sure. George [Russell] had no pace. It was frustrating."

Max Verstappen has won the drivers' championship four times consecutively since 2021. However, because of Red Bull's issues around the development of the RB21, he has not been able to fight regularly at the front.

Time is ticking for the Milton Keynes-based team to come up with a potent challenger with which the Dutchman could regularly take the fight to the mighty McLarens.