chief has admitted that is unhappy with the team's treatment of Liam Lawson. The New Zealander was promoted to replace Sergio Perez for the 2025 season but .

Lawson, 23, failed to score any points in Australia or China, and will now swap places at the Racing Bulls with Yuki Tsunoda. Red Bull have been scathingly criticised for their handling of the situation, accused of humiliating the driver and not giving him sufficient time to prove himself. Ex-F1 driver Giedo van der Garde was one of many to take to social media to voice discontent at the development.

"In my opinion, this comes closer to bullying or a panic move than actual high athlete achievements," he wrote on Instagram. "They made a decision - fully aware - gave Liam two races only to crush his spirit."

Intriguingly, Verstappen liked the post. Marko has now conceded that it hasn't been just online that the reigning world champion has outlined his anger and lifted the lid on talks between driver and team.

"That conclusion is correct, and he did express that (not agreeing with the Lawson decision)," he told . "But we explained to Max that, in order to win the championship, we have to do everything we can to have two cars in the top 10."

Marko also argued that the call was made to protect Lawson from intense scrutiny and potential damage to his career. The current RB21 vehicles are struggling to live with the pace of frontrunners McLaren and have proved hard to adapt to for Verstappen and Lawson so far.

"Max argued that the car is very difficult to drive and that if the car were better, Lawson's performance would improve as well," added Marko. "Of course, we're working on further development, but at the moment, it's hard to predict how quickly that will come."

Admitting he felt Lawson was promoted prematurely, the Austrian added: "That was one of the reasons why he felt the switch from Lawson came too early because the car is extremely difficult to drive, even for him."