Max Verstappen predicted to be “difficult to manage” if Red Bull doesn’t deliver

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has issued a warning to Red Bull ahead of the 2025 Formula 1 season.

After a difficult end to the 2024 season, where Red Bull slipped to third in the Constructors’ Championship, the Milton Keynes outfit is looking to reclaim its former glory. As a result of the disappointment last year, the team parted ways with Mexican driver Sergio Perez and has promoted rookie Liam Lawson to drive alongside Max Verstappen.

Despite securing his fourth consecutive drivers’ title, Verstappen faced increased competition from McLaren’s Lando Norris. While he started the season with a similar form to his staggering dominance seen during 2023—winning seven of the first ten races—Verstappen’s performance suffered when the RB20 struggled with poor balance.

During this period, Verstappen came under fire for his aggressive team radio messages and later received a community service penalty for swearing about his car during a press conference in Singapore. Steiner believes that if Red Bull fails to provide Verstappen with a title-contending machine in 2025, managing him could become significantly more difficult.

Steiner’s Warning on Verstappen’s Temperament

The former Haas team chief explained to CNN:

“I would say last year, when he started not to win, he reacted, pretty aggressively,” Steiner said. “But then at some stage, I think he realised, ‘I need to be smart about this and just take home as many points as I can, even if I’m not winning a race’.

“So we need to see which Max we get.

“But for sure, if he hasn’t got a good car where he can win, he will get very difficult to manage as well, I would say, because he will be vocal about it that he’s not happy. And an unhappy Max is not a nice Max, as we all know.

“But he’s a very good driver, I think the best in the moment. And for sure, he will put his effort in to win races, to win the championship again, but it will not be easy, as we saw last year.”

Explaining how he would manage Verstappen in that instance, Steiner added:

“To stay calm, but don’t throw the toys out of the pram after two races if it doesn’t go your way.

“‘If it is not in our way, in the beginning of the season, we need to work hard to get back where we want to be’, you know, because getting impatient and complaining doesn’t help a team, doesn’t put the team together, and obviously that is what you need when you’re not competitive.

“But first of all, I would say, ‘just let’s wait to see where we are at and then we see where we want to go, and where we can go’.”