Marko confirms emergency Red Bull meeting

Helmut Marko has confirmed an emergency meeting is to be held by Red Bull in the coming week to address its start to the 2025 F1 season.

Red Bull finished fourth with Max Verstappen in the Chinese GP, but the major ongoing concern surrounds Liam Lawson's struggles after he capped off a poor weekend with a lowly 15th place. 

It came after a troubled debut for the team in Australia, where he crashed out in the tricky conditions, with Lawson qualifying last for both the Sprint and grand prix, although he did make forward progress in both but did not score points. 

Verstappen now has 36 points to his name with Lawson yet to score, with Yuki Tsunoda confirming after qualifying that he would be "100%" ready to step into the Red Bull from the Japanese GP, if required. 

Reflecting on the Shanghai race, Marko confirmed an emergency meeting is planned for the coming week. 

"This week there is a meeting in Milton Keynes to discuss when and how we can close the gap," Marko told Sky DE. 

"Until then, it's about scoring as many points as possible. 

"We are worried, but it is not like we are throwing in the towel."

As for Verstappen's race, Marko pointed to the medium tyres as a reason why the RB21 lost its pace and why the Dutchman could not keep up with the leading pack. 

"On the hard tyre we were as fast as the frontrunners," he added.

"We lost the race with the first set of mediums, the start was also a bit unfortunate, when Max fell back, and maybe it was still in his head that the mediums were relatively vulnerable and that he took it too easy. 

"When we brought him in, he was still quick, and in the end we were as fast as the front runners, we caught up with Leclerc but it was too late.

"With a successful start, without losing two places and with more speed in the first stint, we could have finished on the podium."