F1 Today | Marko confirms Verstappen 'was aware' of Horner dismissal

Max Verstappen has endured a difficult season so far, by his lofty standards, as he has only won two races.

His race wins in Japan and at Imola this year were impressive, but the four-time world champion hasn't been able to challenge McLaren consistently.

There has also been instability within the Red Bull team as team principal Christian Horner was replaced by Laurent Mekies.

Helmut Marko is adamant that the team's star driver Verstappen knew Horner would be dismissed but didn't give too much else away.

He told Austrian medium oe24: “Max was aware. I do not want to say anything more about it.” Read more here.

Red Bull have been very impressive in recent years as Verstappen has won the last four Drivers' Championships for the Austrian team.

This season has by much more frustrating and has yielded an array of contrasting emotions with the team.

They have only won two races this year, courtesy of Verstappen, but Juan Pablo Montoya feels Marko could be leaving soon.

The former F1 driver told the MontoyAS podcast: "The most complicated thing about this is that we will never know what happened."

Montoya responded when asked whether both Red Bull drivers would be impacted: "No. Because the one who makes decisions about the drivers is Helmut. The question is whether Helmut stays or retires."