Max Verstappen lost interest in Formula One during Red Bull’s struggles earlier in the season, Helmut Marko has revealed.
Verstappen was more than 100 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri before F1’s summer break, during a tumultuous campaign which saw Red Bull sack team principal Christian Horner.
With Piastri and teammate Lando Norris dominating the grid, McLaren won 12 of the first 15 races and looked set to streak away with both the constructors’ and drivers’ titles.
But Verstappen has stormed back into contention in recent weeks, winning three of the past four races and finishing in the top two in all of the five grands prix since the break. The Dutch driver is now only 40 points behind Australia’s Piastri with five races to go, ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend, as he bids to win a fifth successive world title.
“Max, at one stage when we were not competitive, I would say he lost a little bit of interest,” Marko, Red Bull’s advisor and close confidante of Verstappen, told Sky Sports.
Verstappen enjoyed a brief foray in Grand Tourer racing, winning a GT3 race last month in Nordschleife with Britain’s Chris Lulham in the Nurburgring Endurance Series, and Helmut believes that was a useful distraction.
“He was more interested in GT racing so, to keep him in a good mood, I was talking about Nurburgring and things like that. But now that the car is working, and after his success at the Nurburgring, I would say two tenths just came from him because he’s really motivated, he’s enjoying [F1]. You don’t hear him shouting, he’s smiling – that’s what you need.”
Verstappen will miss first practice in Mexico on Friday, giving up his seat to British-Swedish reserve driver Arvid Lindblad for the opening session.
The race will be followed by trips to Sao Paulo (9 November), Las Vegas (22 November) and Qatar (30 November) before the season finale in Abu Dhabi (7 December).
Piastri leads the standings with 346 points, ahead of Norris who is 14 points further back on 332. But Verstappen is closing in and trails Norris by only 26 points on 306.
