Red Bull F1 boss makes STUNNING admission about title hopes

Red Bull

Red Bull boss makes STUNNING admission about title hopes

Helmut Marko has suggested that Red Bull may be looking elsewhere for success in 2024

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 16 September 2024 10:57

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Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has suggested that the world champions have given up in their quest to retain the constructors' championship.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit won two successive championship doubles in 2022 and 2023, with the latter season seeing the team win 21 out of a possible 22 races.

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However, 2024 has been much more difficult, with the performance of their RB20 clearly suffering while others have improved.

They appear to be in a three-way championship battle with Ferrari and McLaren, whose lead driver Lando Norris is also challenging Max Verstappen for the drivers' championship.

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are battling for the championship

Red Bull's championship fight over?

At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Red Bull surrendered their spot at the top of the constructors' standings, with McLaren overtaking them following a fifth-place finish for Verstappen and a point-less race for Sergio Perez.

Perez had been challenging for the lead of the race, when he collided with Carlos Sainz on the penultimate lap.

It means that McLaren now lead the constructors' championship by 20 points, with seven races left in the season.

Despite the clearly still close title battle, Marko has suggested that the team have given up on the constructors' championship, and are now focused on keeping Verstappen's 59-point buffer to Lando Norris in the drivers' championship.

Asked by Ralf Schumacher on Sky Germany if they had written off the championship battle, Marko said: "To be honest, yes. The positive is that Piastri is very close to Lando in terms of points. There will be no clarity about the team rating," he said, citing Oscar Piastri's win as a reason for McLaren not favouring Norris, thus helping Verstappen's fight.