Marko: Verstappen put too much pressure on himself

Marko told reporters ahead of his team's home race at the Red Bull Ring, "The problem was that Max put too much pressure on himself."

"Suddenly he made mistakes with a car he could drive in front, which he did not make last year when his car was far from so good."

"We've been through all variations: how can we stabilise Max? It was more a coincidence than a programmed action that nobody was there in Montreal. This is the Max we're expecting now. France was a great weekend without any mistakes."

Marko suggested that the Dutchman has realised he does not have to be the quickest in every session, perhaps a lesson learnt the hard way when he crashed out in FP3 at Monaco while he was clearly the fastest driver on the circuit at the time when it didn't matter.

The incident cost him a sure podium and possible victory because he was forced to miss qualifying as his team repaired the damage to his car. The next day he managed to finish ninth after starting last, his teammate Daniel Ricciardo won the race.

Marko explained, "That's exactly what he needs to learn: you won't win a championship just because you're ahead in every practice session. On the other hand, we're glad he's so unruly. It's easier to get him [to calm] down than to build a not so fast or aggressive driver in that direction."

At the same time, the Austrian insisted, “The aggressiveness and the fighting spirit make him stand out. That's why I always defended him.”

Meanwhile, the orange-army grows with every race as his supporters travel the world to support the young star as Marko explained, "In Austria, he will be joined by 18,000 Dutchmen - probably even more after second place in France. He has a cult status in his home country and Belgium. Dealing with this at the age of 20 is not quite so easy."