Ralf Schumacher has never been shy about lobbing a hand grenade into the Red Bull conversation, but he didn’t expect one to come back with “bulls**t” written on it.
After suggesting Red Bull is feeling the absence of long-time advisor Helmut Marko in the early stretch of 2026, Schumacher found himself on the receiving end of a blunt social media reply from Jos Verstappen. The former F1 driver and father of Max Verstappen dismissed the claim in characteristically direct fashion, and the exchange quickly became one of those paddock side-stories that tells you as much about the mood inside a camp as it does about the actual point being debated.
Schumacher says the two have since spoken, and that the temperature cooled almost as quickly as it rose.
“We had contact,” Schumacher explained on Sky Germany’s Backstage Pit Lane podcast. “He was not rude at all, but made it clear that he thinks differently.”
That’s the thing about Red Bull right now: everyone has an opinion, and nobody seems fully aligned on the story they want to tell about 2026.
Marko, 82, stepped away from parent company Red Bull GmbH at the end of last year, closing the chapter on an era in which he was far more than just a senior advisor. He was a power centre — the public edge, the internal talent-spotter, the unfiltered voice who could push and protect in equal measure. His imprint on the Verstappen/Red Bull dynasty is obvious, and the closeness of that relationship has been a constant subplot for years. At one stage, Max Verstappen’s contract was even believed to include a mechanism that could allow him to leave if Marko exited.
So when Red Bull’s 2026 start hasn’t met the standards set by its own recent history, it’s not surprising that Schumacher looked at the missing seat in the garage and connected dots. He’d argued the team is “missing Marko as a figure to give some kind of guidance”.
Jos Verstappen, clearly unimpressed, fired back online: “Ralf talks a lot off [sic] bulls**t.”
Schumacher insists he took it in stride, and even suggested the tone was more about the current pressure than genuine animosity.
“I like Jos Verstappen, I like Max Verstappen, so as far as that is concerned everything is fine,” he said. “I think it is also a difficult time for them now, also for a father who is not used to, after all these years and all these successes, suddenly having to answer or explain things.”
He went further, painting Jos’s reaction as atypical. “That’s just not Jos,” Schumacher said. “He is a bit more emotional at the moment, maybe a bit irritable or quicker to get hit.”
Whether you buy that or not, Verstappen Sr has been visibly active in the online rumour mill again this week too, claiming Gianpiero Lambiase is leaving Red Bull for McLaren “because they’re offering him a lot of money.” It all adds to a sense of nerves around the edges — the kind of agitation you tend to see when a team is battling not just rivals, but expectation.
The Verstappens have lived for years in an ecosystem built around control and certainty: a car that usually did what it was supposed to do, a structure that backed its star, and an inner circle that didn’t change much. Strip away one of the most influential personalities in that circle, add a new regulatory era, and suddenly every comment gets interpreted as either a warning sign or an agenda.
Max Verstappen, for his part, hasn’t pretended Marko’s exit is meaningless — but he also hasn’t made it sound like a crisis. Speaking to media at the Australian Grand Prix last month, he admitted it “will feel a little bit different in the garage” without Marko, while confirming they’re still in contact.
“Maybe a few less Austrian-sided jokes from Helmut,” Verstappen said, “but I’m in touch with him anyway. Maybe not so much about details of the car, but just life. I shared so many moments with him so, of course, it will feel a little bit different in the garage, but you also have to just look ahead.”
That perspective matters. If Marko was a key emotional pillar for Verstappen, the fact the relationship continues — even at a distance — blunts the idea that Red Bull has simply lost him overnight. And Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies has also tried to keep the door visibly open, saying on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast that Marko remains “very open and available to us” this season.
Still, Schumacher’s underlying point isn’t really about whether Marko is getting WhatsApps from Max, or whether he still pops his head in from time to time. It’s about what Marko represented internally: a clear line of authority and a particular way of making decisions that helped define Red Bull’s ruthlessness during its most successful period.
When that’s gone, even if the org chart says it’s fine, the human side takes longer to settle. And when results aren’t instantly there — when a team is being asked questions it hasn’t had to answer for a while — it’s the surrounding voices that get louder. Former drivers have their say. Fathers clap back. Every rumour gets oxygen.
Schumacher, at least, is treating the whole thing as a symptom rather than the story itself. “It doesn’t bother me,” he said, adding he was simply “surprised” given how close he believed the Marko-Verstappen relationship to be.
Red Bull might not thank him for pointing it out, but it’s hard to ignore what’s really on display here: not a feud, not even a genuine disagreement, but a team and a family recalibrating in public — and doing it in a season where Red Bull isn’t used to having to explain much at all.
