Red Bull have done ‘one of the worst things’ an F1 team can do to their driver and Max Verstappen is suffering

The 2025 Formula 1 season was always going to be a difficult title defence for Max Verstappen. Red Bull have clearly fallen behind McLaren in development.

This was made apparent midway through 2024, when the Woking outfit emerged with the fastest car. Despite this, Verstappen had built enough of an advantage to win the title by 63 points over Lando Norris.

The Dutchman cannot be fully counted out of the 2025 championship race, as evidenced by a win at Suzuka and two pole positions. At certain circuits, Red Bull can challenge McLaren like Japan and Saudi Arabia, but at others, they are alarmingly behind.

Bahrain was the biggest example of their pace deficit to McLaren, as Verstappen finished half a minute behind winner Oscar Piastri. The performance of the car was so bad that Red Bull held an intensive meeting to figure out their problem.

The RB21 is a difficult car to handle – even for the four-time champion, for whom the car is so tailored. Red Bull’s situation is not helped by the fact that their simulations do not translate to performance on the track.

Red Bull have issues with the wind tunnel as its findings do not correlate with what Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda feel in the car. The Dutchman has been voicing his concerns about the RB21’s regression.

Oliver Oakes says ‘one of the worst things’ an F1 team can do is ignore their drivers – Red Bull have done that to Max Verstappen

Despite being their star driver, the 27-year-old’s concerns were ignored, as Red Bull instead opted to drop Liam Lawson after he could not extract any performance in the opening two races. Verstappen disagreed with Lawson’s demotion, claiming he would have been better with a stronger car.

Verstappen is ‘most frustrated’ Red Bull ignored him and his concerns about the car. According to Oliver Oakes, this is ‘one of the worst things’ an F1 team can do to their drivers.

Speaking via F1 Explains, the Alpine team principal discussed how he deals with his drivers’ feedback: “That’s a tricky one. You never get the same feedback from both.

“You need to delve into that. Where are they both coming from? Because sometimes they are feeling the same thing but it’s coming from different ways.

“One could be feeling the tyres aren’t working because of balance of the car. The other driver has the same feeling but it’s actually becoming because of his tyre warm-ups.

“So I think a lot of it is almost letting them get it off their chest and then taking a bit of a breather and having a look into it.

“I think one of the worst things you can do, you’ve been a driver as well, is where you feel the team isn’t listening to you or they shoot you down immediately.

“I think over the years you sort of learn to pick your battles with them as well. There are times when [you] probably need to give them a bit of a kick and there are times where you need to give them a bit of love as well.”

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Red Bull risk falling behind if they cannot bring upgrades to the RB21

Red Bull’s situation is complex, as they seem to have performance at some tracks and then look miles off the pace at others. The general consensus is that the team must bring upgrades to the RB21.

Verstappen’s incredible pole position in Jeddah papered over the cracks at the Milton Keynes outfit, as teammate Tsunoda could only manage eighth, almost a second off the pace.

The Dutchman has not shied away from calling for upgrades, stating they need to come as soon as possible. If they do not, the likes of McLaren, Mercedes and even Ferrari could pull away.

Helmut Marko says Red Bull have until Imola to bring updates to the car, otherwise it will be ‘too late.’ Verstappen can extract the absolute most out of the RB21, but as shown in Bahrain, the ‘best’ could be outside the top five.