Helmut Marko reveals engine penalty chances for Max Verstappen after ‘day to forget’

Max Verstappen endured a tough day in Mexico as engine issues on his Red Bull RB20 curtailed his running.

Verstappen’s FP1 running was cut to just 14 laps as the Dutch driver encountered an engine issue on his Red Bull, an issue which occurred again in the second practice session.

Max Verstappen: Friday was a ‘pretty useless day’

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

The championship leader is aiming to extend his points advantage over Lando Norris this weekend, but the Mexico City Grand Prix kicked off with difficulties on the Dutch driver’s side of the Red Bull garage.

While on track in FP1, Verstappen slowed as he took to the team radio to complain about a lack of power from his Honda power unit. Returning to the pits, Verstappen was sent back out and, while his car appeared reasonably healthy, he radioed in to say the issue was not rectified and came back in.

He sat out the final few minutes of FP1, finishing the early session in fourth, with Red Bull confident the issue had been repaired as Christian Horner told media the engine issue was “thankfully, a menial issue and has been rectified, hopefully, for the next session.”

But, almost immediately in FP2, Verstappen radioed in to complain about strange noises from his engine and returned to the pits again. This time, there was no coming back out, and Verstappen duly failed to set a lap time with just four laps completed.

Speaking to media afterward, Verstappen said: “From the engine side, we are checking, I don’t know exactly what it is, but yeah, from my side, pretty much useless day.

“I did like, four or five laps, and it’s not much to read into at the moment.”

Asked whether he reckons an engine penalty might be on the cards if he needs a new one, Verstappen said: “That will be alright.”

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Helmut Marko: I am sure Red Bull can solve it

This was backed up by team advisor Helmut Marko, who told PlanetF1.com what had happened: “The same thing, like in the first session, we have a leak somewhere in the turbo system.”

Posed the same question about whether a penalty might be on the horizon, Marko said: “No, there won’t be any penalties. I am sure that we can solve it.”

Regardless of whether a grid penalty looms or not for Verstappen, and the lack of run-time being somewhat negated by the prescribed running on the Pirelli prototype tyres in FP2, the Dutch driver admitted he is ending the day without any real idea of where his Red Bull RB20’s performance is.

“I cannot tell you,” he said.

“I mean, I never really had a good run, only four or five laps in total, and that’s even with some long run laps in it. So, yeah, day to forget.”

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