Marko teases more Red Bull firepower as Verstappen turns the title tide
The arc of this season is bending back towards Max Verstappen. After a bleak Dutch Grand Prix left him more than a century of points down on Oscar Piastri, Red Bull’s champion has ripped off a ruthless run — 101 points from a possible 108 across the last four weekends — to haul himself back into the fight for a fifth straight title.
Now comes the kicker: Red Bull isn’t done upgrading.
Helmut Marko, never one to downplay a late-season scrap, says more parts are coming for the RB21. “We still have something up our sleeves. I don’t know exactly when it will come,” the team’s motorsport advisor told Austrian outlet OE24, a nod to the quiet confidence inside Milton Keynes since that pivotal Monza floor arrived and woke the car up.
The contrast with McLaren is striking. Andrea Stella has drawn a line under development of the MCL39. “When it comes to new upgrades, new parts, this will not happen for the rest of the season,” the team boss told media after the United States GP. In isolation, that’s fine; McLaren’s car has been the class of the field often enough. But it’s come as the team hits its roughest patch of the year — four weekends without a win — while its lead driver’s rhythm has wobbled.
Piastri’s once-effortless momentum has gone missing. Since the summer burst that put him in command, he’s banked just one podium from the last four Grands Prix and suffered two costly crunches — out on lap one in Baku and mixed up in the Sprint chaos in Austin. “You can see now that McLaren no longer has this lightness,” Marko said. “Piastri also had a harder time. I hope it stays that way.”
Red Bull, by contrast, looks lighter on its feet with every session. There isn’t really a circuit anymore where the RB21 feels out of sorts, and if it’s in the window, Verstappen tends to do the rest. That’s basically his own diagnosis, too. “The car is just a bit more balanced — it doesn’t oversteer dramatically, it doesn’t understeer dramatically,” he said of the recent step. “Every single weekend you’re always fine-tuning things, because it’s never perfect. The car lately has been a bit more together.”
There’s no chest-beating from Max about the championship. There rarely is. “It’s not about believing in it or not, we just need to be realistic,” he said. “For most of the season that was definitely the case, that we were not fighting for the championship, and lately we’ve had some good results. I know when the car is capable of being quick and fighting for the top places, I can be there. It’s as simple as that.” And on the title itself? Classic Verstappen deadpan: “It’s 50/50. You either win it, or you don’t.”
Strip away the stoicism and you can see why McLaren’s pit wall might be sweating a little. They still hold the cards with two cars near the top of the table — strength in numbers always matters in a points race. But with the development tap off and Verstappen scenting blood, Woking may yet have to make an unromantic choice between two drivers to protect one crown. Lando Norris has been the steadier of the pair lately; Piastri still holds the headline lead. That internal calculus will define their run-in as much as outright pace.
Red Bull, meanwhile, has a singular spearhead and a clear brief: keep feeding the RB21 small, sharp gains and let Verstappen claw for the rest. The Monza floor rebalanced the car and unlocked confidence on entry; the next pieces won’t be wholesale, but in this phase it’s the hundreds and thousands that turn front rows into wins and wins into swings. Marko’s “something up our sleeves” comment will have landed like music in the Verstappen garage.
We’ve been here before with him, of course. In 2022 he turned a 46-point deficit into a stroll and made a mockery of mid-season maths. This year’s turnaround has been bigger, bolder, and coming later — the kind of rescue act that hardens legacies. The margins are finer this time, the opposition deeper, and the calendar unforgiving. But if there’s one driver you’d back to chase down a moving target with the clock ticking, it’s the one who’s made the extraordinary feel routine for four straight years.
Five races to go. One team still sharpening the knife, another putting the toolbox away. Verstappen’s foot is flat. McLaren’s mirrors are full. And the championship just found its edge again.
