Dec.5 (GMM) Dr Helmut Marko has revealed he has placed his usual wager in Abu Dhabi – and, unsurprisingly, the 82-year-old is backing Max Verstappen to complete Red Bull’s extraordinary late-season charge.
“There are always bets, and this time is no exception,” the Red Bull figure told Kleine Zeitung.
Asked what he’d put money on, Marko replied: “Let’s just say I’m fully betting on a Max victory, in every respect.”
He admits the role of the chaser suits Red Bull.
“It’s more comfortable. But McLaren has two drivers who can still win the title, while we only have Max. So it’s a difficult situation for us,” said the Austrian.
Red Bull’s comeback, he insists, has been helped as much by others’ errors as their own progress. “We have primarily benefited from the mistakes of our competitors. Unfortunately we’ve also made mistakes ourselves from time to time, for example with the setup in Hungary. But it’s already been an incredible season,” he added.
Marko said the 2025 showdown is nothing like the intensity of the Lewis Hamilton situation of 2021.
“Everything was much more tense back then,” he insisted.
“The atmosphere was more charged, almost explosive. There was the crash between the two of them at Silverstone beforehand, and that’s why it was so much more intense.”