Marko hears reports of Verstappen exit clause and reacts

Suddenly there was a report last week: Jos Verstappen is said to no longer rule out his son Max switching to Mercedes, and such a scenario had even been discussed with team boss Toto Wolff in Bahrain. Before the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Helmut Marko was asked about this story, but would not comment on it.

"I'm not going to comment on that," Marko is clear to OE24.

According to the rumour circuit, Verstappen has a special 'Marko clause' that allows him to get out from under his contract if the 80-year-old Austrian decides to leave his role as an external advisor to Red Bull Racing. As is well known, Verstappen is hugely loyal to Marko, who gave him the chance to debut in Formula 1 at the age of 17.

'No comment' from Marko

But Marko is not releasing anything about this either. "I stand by my 'no comment!' here too. The fact is that there is a great bond of trust between Max and me." The Red Bull adviser is keeping his mouth closed, just as he did recently regarding the Horner issue.

Meanwhile, the Verstappen family - and Jos in particular - seems to be on a collision course with Christian Horner. Jos Verstappen recently lashed out at the 50-year-old Briton. In Bahrain, an argument also ensued between the two. Marko will not or cannot say anything on whether Horner can be retained for Red Bull as team boss. "I won't say anything about that until the matter is finalised," he said. But wasn't the case already finalised? "OK, then I expressed myself wrongly. Then we'll stick to 'no comment!'."

Marko responds to Berger's theory

Gerhard Berger, a close friend of Marko, recently predicted that Marko, along with Adrian Newey and Max Verstappen, will soon leave Red Bull. Horner - backed by the Thai major shareholder - would stay put. "An interesting variant," is all Marko released about his compatriot's theory.