Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko concedes that Max Verstappen "needs some help from McLaren" to secure an outside-bet fifth Formula 1 title in 2025 - an eventuality he teasingly suggested was not impossible.
Verstappen sits 63 points away from Oscar Piastri's championship lead, although has an opportunity to make a small dent in that from sprint race pole at the United States Grand Prix; Piastri starts third ahead of the 19-lap race on Saturday.
Prior to the summer break, Verstappen had been 97 away from Piastri's lead and almost out for the count, but Red Bull's progress with its RB21 has given the four-time champion a platform to reel off two wins and two second-place finishes in the four races since.
Verstappen previously stated that a win in Singapore would have made his title ambitions more realistic, an opinion Marko largely agreed with. The 82-year-old Austrian added that, while McLaren would have to stumble significantly to help Verstappen loom into the frame, he felt that this was certainly a vague possibility.
"Since Zandvoort, we were always fighting for P1, P2. So the direction is okay. Unfortunately, this turnaround came a little bit late," Marko said.
"All this [discussion about] medium speed, the temperature and all these stories, they don't count anymore. We are there.
"And if in one corner we may be [off the pace], it's going within thousands of a second. It's not like it was before, half a second or so in some sectors.
"It shows that our car made a big step forward and Max, of course, is using it to the maximum. If we would have made this turnaround earlier, the championship would look different.
"I think we can't do it on our own. We need some help from McLaren. It's not impossible."
On assessing Verstappen's sprint pole lap, Marko lauded his driver's speed in the final sector of the lap. Although Verstappen was up on Norris' benchmark after the first sector, the McLaren driver evened things up a little bit in the middle sector. The final margin between the two stood at 0.071 seconds.
Although McLaren generally has the edge over a longer run in warm conditions, the length of the sprint race may ensure that Verstappen can head off that advantage.
"[It was] super," Marko enthused. "In sector 3, he made the pole. Turn 1, he went sideways, but even so he was quicker. He was sliding a bit too much, I guess, but unbelievable lap and sector 3. It's up to him and he delivers.
"It should be even hotter tomorrow. That normally favours McLaren. But I hope when Max stays ahead that he can manage it."
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