Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has conceded defeat in the Formula 1 world championship after Max Verstappen was taken out of the Austrian Grand Prix by Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Verstappen was struck by Antonelli on the opening lap and dumped out of the race and now trails championship leader Oscar Piastri by 61 points.
Piastri finished second, behind his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, as the papaya-coloured team flexed its superior pace advantage.
And Marko believes the gap is now too much for Verstappen to make up in the 13 remaining rounds this season - unless Red Bull is able to find a way to catch up.
“We’ve got some updates coming over the next two races, but this was a performance that, I’d almost say... yes, it forces us to write off the championship,” Marko told Austrian TV ORF.
When asked if he was being serious, Marko added: “With this kind of gap and unless we manage to catch up soon enough to win on merit, I mean, how many points is Max trailing now?
“Looking at McLaren’s performance; they only had a dip in Canada, when they needed new parts. That’s not something we can rely on happening again. So no, it doesn’t look good.
“Unfortunately, it’s both, the time gap and the 60-point margin, which is nearly equivalent to three race wins. That’s incredibly difficult to recover.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner also admitted the championship had become a two-horse race: “McLaren, you can see how they're racing each other, they've got a cushion to the rest of the field, for us we just focus one race at a time.
“We don't even think about championships, we just focus on the next race at Silverstone and what can we achieve there.
“I still believe that we have strength and depth in this team and unfortunately we haven't seen the performance come that we would like.
“We're at the end of a set of regulations. I think we are compromised by some of the tools that we have, but it's the same fundamental group of people that 18 months ago had designed a car that won every single grand prix by one. They didn't suddenly just become idiots overnight.
“So, you have to acknowledge the great job that McLaren is doing, and congratulations to them.
“But for us, it's just about working harder, because everybody's working incredibly hard. It’s just working smarter. And let's see over the next few races.”
