Max Verstappen: 200 meters of tire screeching to shake up Red Bull?. Red Bull: recovery process still seems incomplete.

A tough throne to defend
“We won’t be fighting for victory in Melbourne; there is a favored team, and their car is orange.” Max Verstappen has already ruled himself out of contention for the top step of the podium in the season opener in Australia next weekend. A year ago, the Red Bull driver secured pole position after Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz made too many mistakes in Q3, but in the race, he was forced to retire after just a few hundred meters due to a brake issue.

Red Bull was tasked with solving the RB20’s problems over the winter break, but the recovery process still seems incomplete, and some of the updates introduced by the Milton Keynes team in Bahrain during testing did not work. On Wednesday, Max Verstappen had made promising statements, but Friday did not bring the answers he had hoped for. According to former F1 engineer Ernest Knoor, Max Verstappen sent a clear message to his team after a spin. “He screeched his tires for 200 meters, destroying the entire set on purpose because he was frustrated after the spin. Red Bull still has handling issues. The ideas are not clear, and Max Verstappen is obviously not satisfied,” said Knoor on the Paddockpraat podcast.

According to the Catalan edition of *El Nacional*, Max Verstappen is in close contact with Aston Martin for 2026 due to Red Bull’s current technical situation, which could worsen when F1 introduces new regulations, including the first power unit developed by the Milton Keynes engine division following what had seemed to be Honda’s definitive departure from F1 during the pandemic. In addition to the unresolved RB20 issues, *El Nacional* reports that Max Verstappen was not pleased with Red Bull’s decision to back Liam Lawson, a rookie without experience who is unable to contribute to the car’s development.

Helmut Marko has not hidden the fact that it is up to Max Verstappen to make up the two to three tenths that Red Bull currently lacks to match McLaren, but after spending two-thirds of 2024 “in the trenches,” the Dutchman may no longer be willing to accept not having the best car on the grid. And for 2026, when everything changes in F1, betting on Aston Martin may not be a leap into the unknown, given that Verstappen has already raced and won alongside Adrian Newey and Honda.