Helmut Marko has told Max Verstappen to “trust” his own judgement in the RB21, not the simulator findings, as the numbers coming from the factory have them going “backwards on the track”.

At the start of a season in which nine teams are chasing one, it’s no longer Red Bull who are the pace-setters, it is McLaren.

Max Verstappen told to ‘trust his experience rather than the simulator’

The MCL39 has emerged as the car to beat, McLaren claiming three of four Grand Prix wins to lead both championship fights.

They extended their advantage at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri’s second win of the season, elevating him above Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings on a day when Lando Norris recovered from a difficult qualifying to reach the podium.

As for Verstappen, his efforts to make up ground from a P7 start position on the grid were hampered by balance and brake issues, the situation compounded by two botched pit stops.

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There is also another problem that Red Bull are facing; correlation.

Formula 1’s ground-effect era has seen almost every team struggle with correlation issues at one point or another and while Red Bull had hoped they’d shrugged that off last season, it’s still troubling them.

It has meant that what they see in the wind tunnel does not translate to the track.

“Primarily the wind tunnel has driven us in a direction that isn’t replicating what we’re on track and so, then you end up with a mishmash between what your tools are telling you and what the track data is and so obviously now as we’re accumulating track data, it’s the track data that’s driving the solutions,” team principal Christian Horner told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“I think it’s clear we understand what the problem is, it’s implementing the solution. It’s the entry phase into the mid-corner that needs addressing and giving him [Verstappen] the ability and grip and confidence that takes carry speed into entry of corners, now that’s fundamentally an aero issue that we need to be able to give him that grip.

“The problem that we have is that we’re at the end of a set of regulations where the gains are very, very marginal and I think we’re seeing some of the shortcomings in our current tunnel.”

“I think we understand where the issues are, it’s introducing the solutions that obviously take a little more time,” he added.

“I think the problems are understood, I think the problem is that the solutions with what we see within our tools compared to what we’re seeing on track at the moment aren’t correlating and I think that’s what we need to get to the bottom of, why can we not see within our tools what we’re seeing on the circuit?

“When you end up with a disconnect like that, you have to obviously unpick it, we’ve got a strong technical team that have produced some amazing cars over the last few years and I’m confident that they’ll get to the bottom of this issue.

“But it’s literally the tool isn’t replicating with what we’re seeing on the track and then it’s at that point, it’s like telling the time on two different watches.”

The wind tunnel problem means what they are seeing in the simulator also isn’t translating into what is happening on track.

As such Marko told Verstappen to trust his own instinct when it comes to setting up his RB21 at this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix rather than base it on the numbers coming from the Red Bull factory.

“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.”

Verstappen heads into round five of the F1 2025 championship eight points behind Norris in the title fight, while Red Bull are 80 points down on McLaren.

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