F1: Guenther Steiner has warned Red Bull that Max Verstappen could be ‘difficult to manage’

Former Haas chief Guenther Steiner has warned Red Bull that Max Verstappen would be ‘difficult to manage’ if they can’t deliver him a winning car in 2025.

Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has predicted Max Verstappen could become “difficult to manage” if Red Bull can’t deliver the world champion a winning car this year as he urged the Dutch star not to “throw the toys out of the pram”.

In a warning to the powerhouse team ahead of the 2025 season, which kicks off at Albert Park next week for the Australian Grand Prix, Steiner said Verstappen showed last year that he reacted “pretty aggressively” when he was not on top.

While Verstappen secured a fourth straight world drivers’ championship in 2024, he faced a greater challenge from McLaren’s early title favourite Lando Norris.

Norris was runner-up for the title with four race wins and helped steer McLaren to the constructors’ championship alongside his Australian teammate, Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen made an explosive start to his 2024 campaign when he won seven of the first 10 races, but then went 10 races in the middle of the season without a win.

Max Verstappen has sights on five straight drivers’ titles. Picture: Giuseppe CACACE / AFP

Steiner said Verstappen was not afraid to let it be known when he was not happy with his situation or car’s performance and tipped he could be hard to handle if the team could not give him a title-challenging machine this year.

“I would say last year, when he started not to win, he reacted pretty aggressively,” Steiner told CNN.

“But then at some stage, I think he realised, ‘I need to be smart about this and just take home as many points as I can, even if I’m not winning a race’.

“So we need to see which Max we get.

“Bur for sure, if he hasn’t got a good car where he can win, he will get very difficult to manage as well, I would say, because he is vocal about it that he’s not happy.

“And an unhappy Max is not a nice Max, as we all know.

“But he is a very good driver, I think the best in the moment and for sure he will put his effort in to win races, to win the championship again, but it will not be easy as we saw last year.”

Former Haas team chief Guenther Steiner says Verstappen could become difficult for Red Bull. Picture: Mark Sutton / LAT Images

Verstappen can equal Michael Schumacher’s record of five consecutive world titles this year, but Norris is widely tipped to be the early favourite after McLaren’s testing form.

After last week’s pre-season testing in Bahrain, Verstappen said Red Bull still had “some work to do” but said overall the team’s form “wasn’t bad”.

Steiner urged Verstappen to maintain his composure if results did not go Red Bull’s way early in the season.

“To stay calm, but don’t throw the toys out of the pram after two races if it doesn’t go your way,” Steiner said.

“‘If it is not in our way, in the beginning of the season, we need to work hard to get back where we want to be’, you know, because getting impatient and complaining doesn’t help a team, doesn’t put the team together, and obviously that is what you need when you’re not competitive.

“But first of all, I would say, ‘Just let’s wait to see where we are at and then we see where we want to go, and where we can go’.”

Originally published as F1: Guenther Steiner has warned Red Bull that Max Verstappen could be ‘difficult to manage’