Max Verstappen’s manager “particularly irked” as new insight into Red Bull row emerges

Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz has shed light on the heated exchange between Max Verstappen's manager and Helmut Marko, explaining that it stemmed from Red Bull’s pit stop woes.

After the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, Kravitz mentioned in his post-race ‘notebook’ show that he saw Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen giving Marko “a piece of his mind”.

This exchange came after a disappointing Bahrain GP for Verstappen, who finished sixth.

Verstappen’s race was lacklustre due to the RB21’s lack of pace, while slow pit stops compounded a tough afternoon.

The Dutchman remains in title contention, sitting eight points behind Lando Norris ahead of this weekend’s Saudi Arabian GP.

Speaking on the latest Sky Sports F1 podcast episode, Kravitz speculated that the cause of Vermeulen’s frustration was Red Bull’s poor pit stops.

“That was something that I saw. I have seen plenty of times where Raymond Vermeulen or Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have been discussing situations but Raymond Vermeulen seemed particularly irked about something which I think was actually the pit stop problems,” Kravitz explained.

“We’ve got short memories haven’t we? Not two weeks ago we were saying Max Verstappen is definitely back in the world championship after his fantastic performance in Japan. On pole and winning the grand prix. Let’s be a bit careful with this.

“Red Bull would have known from testing they weren’t as quick as the McLarens and actually the Mercedes. There were pretty much no surprises.

“I think what the Verstappens were annoyed, what Raymond Vermeulen was moaning about and Max said this as well but when everything isn’t so great on the car, at least we need to have good pit stops and good operational things going on.”

Is Wheatley exit to blame?

Red Bull have lost a number of key personnel over the last 12 months.

Jonathan Wheatley, now Sauber’s F1 team principal, was the mastermind behind Red Bull’s razor-sharp trackside team.

Wheatley was instrumental in Red Bull's having the best pit stops on the grid, holding the record for the fastest pit stop for several seasons.

However, Kravitz doesn’t think Wheatley’s departure is to blame for the recent mistakes.

“If you count the slow pit stop that Max had in Japan that put him into conflict with Lando Norris when Lando went on the grass and then you count out light number one not working for Max, light number two not working for Yuki and then front-right not working for Max in his second stop,” Kravitz added.

“That’s four pit stop problems that Red Bull have had in two races. That’s very unusual. Now, of course, cause-effect these things happen. If Jonathan Wheatley was still there would these things be still happening?

“Probably. The electronics in the pit stop traffic light system don’t know he’s now the Sauber team principal and left. He didn’t spend his evenings making sure the programming of the traffic light system in the pit stops is working and it’s probably nothing on the front-right that Jonathan Wheatley would have done. It’s a coincidence.”