Red Bull warned Max Verstappen could be “difficult to manage”
Former F1 team boss issues Red Bull with warning about Max Verstappen.
Max Verstappen will be “very difficult to manage” if he isn’t given a competitive car, Red Bull have been warned by a former F1 team principal.
That is the view of ex-Haas team boss Guenther Steiner, who believes four-time world champion Verstappen will be unhappy if Red Bull fail to provide him with a car capable of winning the world championship.
Verstappen goes into 2025 seeking to win a fifth consecutive drivers’ world title but McLaren and Lando Norris will start the season as early favourites after their strong end to last year.
Steiner pointed to occasions in 2024 when Verstappen “reacted aggressively” to his team when his Red Bull car was plagued by balance issues around the mid-way stage of last season.
The Dutchman endured a 10-race streak without a victory amid Red Bull’s competitive struggles before returning to winning ways in Brazil, and going on to clinch the championship with two races to spare.
“I would say last year, when he started not to win, he reacted, pretty aggressively,” Steiner told CNN.
“But then at some stage, I think he realised, ‘I need to be smart about this and just take home as many points as I can, even if I’m not winning a race’. So we need to see which Max we get.
“But for sure, if he hasn’t got a good car where he can win, he will get very difficult to manage as well, I would say, because he will be vocal about it that he’s not happy. And an unhappy Max is not a nice Max, as we all know.
“But he’s a very good driver, I think the best in the moment. And for sure, he will put his effort in to win races, to win the championship again, but it will not be easy, as we saw last year.”
How would Steiner deal with Verstappen?
Red Bull are heading into the season opener in Australia off the back of a mixed Bahrain pre-season test, which the team admitted did not go as smoothly as they expected.
Steiner was asked how he would manage Verstappen if things were not going Red Bull’s way.
“To stay calm, but don’t throw the toys out of the pram after two races if it doesn’t go your way,” he replied.
“‘If it is not in our way, in the beginning of the season, we need to work hard to get back where we want to be’, you know, because getting impatient and complaining doesn’t help a team, doesn’t put the team together, and obviously that is what you need when you’re not competitive.
“But first of all, I would say, ‘just let’s wait to see where we are at and then we see where we want to go, and where we can go’.”
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