{"id":28668,"date":"2025-07-28T23:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28668\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T23:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:51:11","slug":"helmut-marko-details-the-surprise-engine-issues-max-verstappen-and-red-bull-faced-at-the-belgian-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28668\/","title":{"rendered":"Helmut Marko details the surprise engine ‘issues’ Max Verstappen and Red Bull faced at the Belgian Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Max Verstappen enjoyed a bit of a mixed weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix after winning the sprint race before struggling in Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

The fascinating wet-to-dry affair saw the reigning champion stuck behind Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc for the majority of the 44 laps around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Red Bull\u2019s<\/a> car setup was far from ideal.<\/p>\n

They had gambled on a completely wet race, which, following a delay and complaint from Verstappen<\/a>, did not happen for them.<\/p>\n

His hopes of a fifth consecutive drivers\u2019 championship<\/a> appear to have completely faded. Attention is starting to turn to the 2026 F1 regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On a positive note, Verstappen joining Mercedes looks \u2018out of the question\u2019<\/a> after a recent hierarchy adjustment at Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Zak Brown thinks \u2018it\u2019s a shame\u2019 that Christian Horner was replaced<\/a>, but it could end up being the catalyst to turn around a very downward trend over the last 18 months.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Laurent Mekies did something at the Belgian Grand Prix with Toto Wolff that Christian Horner would never do<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MaxPhoto by Ryan Pierse\/Getty ImagesHelmut Marko says Max Verstappen and Red Bull faced engine \u2018issues\u2019 at the Belgian Grand Prix<\/p>\n

Mekies \u2018excels\u2019 in one area Verstappen has complained about<\/a>, and should be able to help translate his drivers\u2019 feedback into improvements on the car.<\/p>\n

The RB21 has been plagued by the same balance issue which hurt its predecessors. It has such a narrow operating window that few drivers can extract any pace from it.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has now reached an agreement<\/a> which could see him leave the team at the end of 2026, but how they start the new regulations will play a big role in that.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, he might have been battling one problem that not many people took notice of at the Belgian Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko<\/a> admitted to SPEEDWEEK<\/a> that the team were battling engine \u2018issues\u2019 during the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the wrong setup and lost, especially in the first sector. We expected rain, and in the end, it was a dry race,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also had a few issues with the engine and weren\u2019t quick enough overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Martin Brundle claims Spa paddock \u2018conversation\u2019 revealed where Max Verstappen will drive in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

How Max Verstappen is on his worst run of Red Bull form since 2019<\/p>\n

Although Verstappen\u2019s silver lining for the weekend was winning the sprint on Sunday, his pace in Grands Prix has not been good enough recently.<\/p>\n

In fact, he has just one podium in his last six races. You have to go back to the 2019 season \u2013 Red Bull\u2019s first with Honda, to find a run of form that poor.<\/p>\n

It tells you everything you need to know about why Horner may have been dropped after the British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

He was replaced by Mekies, who, with 25 years of engineering experience at the highest level, should be able to drive improvement ahead of the new rules.<\/p>\n

As the team gears up to make their own power units, they will need all the technical assistance they can get to hit the ground running in 2026.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen enjoyed a bit of a mixed weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix after winning the sprint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,7696,4405,825,806,805,803,804,946,85],"class_list":["post-28668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belgian-grand-prix","tag-helmut-marko","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}