The €500 bet between Helmut Marko and Christian Horner on Max Verstappen’s pole position
Max Verstappen secured a new pole position in Abu Dhabi. After some challenging practice sessions, Helmut Marko and Christian Horner engaged in a betting game, wagering €500.
The Red Bull bosses were still in the Las Vegas mindset. Yesterday, during qualifying, Christian Horner let slip on Max Verstappen’s radio that he had bet on his driver’s pole position. « Well done, mate, you just won me Helmut’s 500 euros, which is like getting blood from a stone. So yes, fantastic job », he declared into the microphone.
Max Verstappen has bounced back
For the qualifications, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko played along with the betting game. After rather dull practice sessions from Max Verstappen, the Dutchman found his usual level of performance in the qualifying. He dominated all three sessions, setting the fastest lap time three times.
According to information published by AutoSport on the social network X, the bet was regarding Max Verstappen’s qualifying result. While Christian Horner had complete confidence and believed his driver would take pole position, Helmut Marko was more pessimistic. The practice sessions had not reassured the Austrian. Helmut Marko had thought that the Dutchman would at best finish on the 2nd row.
« I never believed that we could make it back to qualifying this way, admitted the Austrian. « We lost half a second in FP3 only in sector three, so that was also some kind of motivation. Christian said “front row” and I said “no, second”. I lost, but I’m very happy that our engineers did a fantastic job in making the right adjustments, and also that Max delivered. I should have known he would. »
The sum will benefit the mechanics
The triple World Champion has remained faithful to his old habits. He showed up in key moments, signing yet another first place finish this year. When asked about this anecdote in a press conference, Max Verstappen replied, “« I think Helmut has learned his lesson. Never bet against me!” »
The amount of 500 € put at stake by the two Red Bull bosses will benefit the mechanics. It has been decided that this will finance the bar where the team will go at the end of the Grand Prix and especially the championship, which is being completely dominated by Red Bull.
