Marko saw 'grumpy' Verstappen: 'Had to do too many PR things'

Time and again, swearing sounded from Max Verstappen's cockpit. Although the Dutchman was on his way to a (hard-fought) victory at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, he was far from happy with his Red Bull. Brake problems prevented Verstappen from driving the way he preferred.

After the Grand Prix, the Telegraph reports, there was a long debrief at Red Bull Racing. Over an hour, highly unusual after a race they had just won. There was talk about the problems with the RB19, which was higher on the road than usual on the bumpy Circuit of the Americas, and of course, the braking problems.

"He could not drive consistently because when he braked he had to wait and see what was going to happen," Helmut Marko said of the US Grand Prix. "That made it very difficult for Max. But then he still managed not to make one slip. That he keeps behind an incredibly strong driving Hamilton in these conditions is incredible. I think this was his best race of the year."

During the race, Verstappen regularly reacted irritably to his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. The latter left for the airport almost immediately after the race. This was discussed beforehand, by the way: Lambiase is spending some time at home with his family until the start of the weekend in Mexico. Verstappen's petulance had nothing to do with that.

As a matter of fact, Marko noted that Verstappen was "a bit surly" all weekend. "I think he had to do too many PR activities, which is not his favourite thing to do," laughed Marko. One piece of luck for Verstappen: in Mexico next weekend, the marketing team's focus will be mainly on home driver Sergio Perez.