Max Verstappen’s driving abilities may make all the difference when it comes to fighting for the win at Suzuka, despite Red Bull being slightly off McLaren’s pace.

Red Bull heads into the Japanese Grand Prix with question marks over their outright pace, with McLaren having been the dominant force in Australia and China.

Helmut Marko: Suzuka is a ‘real Verstappen track’

While the RB21 may not be a match in terms of outright potential at this point of the season, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko believes Verstappen’s skills will make up for any small shortcoming of machinery when it comes to challenging the McLaren drivers.

Suzuka is well-regarded as a driver’s favourite, with its high-speed sweeps and undulations making it a lot of fun for a driver behind the wheel.

It’s the type of circuit where a driver’s skill can be emphasised, and Verstappen has shown that talent on three occasions at Suzuka – winning in dominant fashion on each occasion over the last three years.

“There is now a real Verstappen track coming up,” Marko told Austria’s OE24 when discussing the prospects of the Dutch driver returning to the top step of the podium

“His driving qualities come into their own even more at Suzuka. The circuit is also one of his absolute favourites.

“He had his very first Formula 1 outing there in Friday practice [in 2014] and has won three times recently. We also hope that the RB21 performs better than it did in China.”

Verstappen trails championship leader Lando Norris by eight points after the first two races, but unlike Norris, he doesn’t have to worry about being challenged by his teammate – even if new teammate Yuki Tsunoda fares well at Suzuka, the dynamic of the team is completely oriented around Verstappen’s championship push.

“Basically, nothing has happened yet,” Marko said of the beginning of the title fight, which has seen both Norris and Oscar Piastri score a win apiece for McLaren.

“Apart from the fact that Norris and Piastri will hopefully be taking points away from each other for even longer.”

Max Verstappen: RB21 perhaps more nervous than others

With Verstappen appearing to disguise some of the difficulties in extracting the outright performance of the RB21 as his teammates – whether that be Sergio Perez last year or Liam Lawson over the first two races this year – have struggled, the four-time F1 World Champion was asked about what shortcomings he’s finding from the new car as he fights for his first win of the season.

“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things, and it depends also on the corner speed, tarmac, tyres overheating, bumps, and kerbs,” he said.

“There’s a lot of different things. Some tracks and some bits are more limiting than others. It depends a lot on the track layout, as well.”

Having made his feelings known on the replacing of Lawson with the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda for the rest of the F1 2025 season, Verstappen said he understands how the RB21 may be more difficult to extract laptime from compared to other cars.

“It is a little bit more nervous, a little bit more unstable in different corner phases maybe,” he said.

“Now, some bits clearly are faster, but, to just piece it all together, it probably is a bit harder.”

Asked whether Red Bull’s designers have focused on downforce to the detriment of driveability, Verstappen backed up what technical director Pierre Waché said in the pre-season – that the team has focused on widening the operating window of their machine compared to last season’s RB20.

“I don’t think so. This year, to be honest, that’s not what we tried to focus on,” he said.

“I think we are focusing on making the car more driveable. I don’t think we are there yet, but we are working on it.

“Last week, we had good meetings in the factory with everyone involved to try and address the things that we want to address in the car and find more balance and, of course, more pace in the car.”

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