Helmut Marko admits Red Bull fear amid Max Verstappen Mercedes talks

Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has fired a hands-off warning to Mercedes, saying: "Max Verstappen is our greatest asset." The Silver Arrows are courting the four-time Formula 1 champion with Brit George Russell likely to be the fall-guy if they get the Dutchman.

But Red Bull insist they are convinced their star man will stick around, while Verstappen refused to answer questions on the topic at Silverstone this week. For Marko, Verstappen's closest ally in F1 outside of his racer father Jos and manager Raymond Vermeulen, it is critical that the 27-year-old remains.

The 82-year-old special advisor said: "Max is our greatest asset. We have achieved most of our successes in recent years mainly thanks to him." Verstappen slipped through Mercedes' fingers once before as a teenager, when he rejected Toto Wolff to sign with Red Bull who could offer him a clearer and quicker route to F1.

He quickly developed a bond with Marko who is a man not easily impressed, but was so in his first meeting with the youngster back in 2014. He said: "Max was not nervous at all. He had prepared well, knew how many cans of Red Bull sold worldwide and that kind of stuff. An older mind in a young body."

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That first Red Bull contract was signed in "some coffee shop at Dusseldorf airport". All of Verstappen's subsequent deals have been thrashed out and agreed in Marko's office at one of his hotels in Graz, Austria. That includes his current one, signed in early 2022 after Verstappen's first title success, which runs until the end of 2028 and is worth around £55million per year, before bonuses.

But with Red Bull seemingly on the decline and McLaren now the dominant force on the F1 grid, there are parallels to the story of the team's other four-time champion. Sebastian Vettel quit in 2014, feeling Ferrari would offer him a better chance of more success, but Marko insists Verstappen's current situation "is different".

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He said: "At that time it was clear that we could not win, with a Renault engine. Sergio Marchionne was then the boss of Ferrari and a real racer. I remember him coming up to me after Max's first win in Barcelona in 2016. He said, 'Your boy is really something special.'"

Red Bull are building their own engines for 2026 with Mercedes tipped to adapt best to the new regulations, as they did in 2014 when hybrids were first introduced. That could factor into Verstappen's decision but Marko insists there is no evidence that the Silver Arrows will be any better off.

He said: "Everyone is talking about next year's engines and yes, we have our own model for the first time. Nobody has proof that Mercedes has next year's best [power unit]. It's not just about the combustion engine, but also battery and petrol. Who knows? Our engine might just be competitive."

On Friday, team principal Christian Horner said he expects the team to be "in a competitive position" with its first in-house power unit, but admitted: "To expect us to be ahead of Mercedes next year is... It would be embarrassing for Mercedes if we were, or for any manufacturer."