Helmut Marko Throws Himself in the Line of Fire to Save Max Verstappen’s Coveted Honor but Leaves With 1 Disappointment

A theme that’s becoming common for Red Bull this season is, “Another race weekend, another race win.” But after the past two race weekends, another one might become more popular: “Another race weekend, another broken trophy.” It was just a week ago that the handcrafted porcelain trophy of Max Verstappen broke after the Hungarian GP. That occurred courtesy of Lando Norris’ extravagant podium celebrations. Considering Norris wasn’t on the podium in Belgium, you would think Verstappen and Red Bull’s trophies would be safe. Spoiler alert: Red Bull was its trophies’ own worst enemy after its win in Belgium. And while Helmut Marko tried his best to save them, three proved too many for him to handle.

After a race win (which has been every race this season), Red Bull does a team photo with all its weekend trophies and pit boards (specifying Max and Checo’s finishing positions). And as soon as the picture is clicked, they spray champagne. Most team members run away to save themselves from the spray. After a one-two at the Belgian GP, Red Bull has three trophies to celebrate—Max’s win, Checo’s second, and the Constructor’s win. And like always, the team posed and ran like their lives depended on it after the shutter snapped. But the ordeal ended in tragedy for one of the trophies.

As they were trying to get away, a team member lost their hold on Checo’s pit board, and it fell straight onto Verstappen’s trophy. With Helmut Marko sitting right in front with all three trophies, he could only save two with his hands. And the third one that fell prey to the pit board happened to be Verstappen’s. But despite two broken trophies in two race weekends, there’s a silver lining Red Bull can take from this. 

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At least the Milton-Keynes outfit has trophies to break, unlike usually eight other teams who can’t get their hands on even one over a race weekend. Considering this trophy wasn’t made of porcelain, that was Red Bull’s saving grace. Even so, when Max Verstappen learned about his broken trophy (yet again), he couldn’t believe it.

Red Bull’s attempts to salvage the trophy of Max Verstappen

After the champagne celebrations and shenanigans, Christian Horner and a few other team members slyly tried to make amends before Verstappen came around to get his trophy. But they didn’t act fast enough, and as soon as Verstappen saw it, he exclaimed, “It’s broken again! You’re joking!” But as he walked away, Horner and his team of fixers seemed to have figured out where what went. And like last weekend, Red Bull is “gonna need some glue.”

In the post that showed this entire ordeal playing out, Red Bull wasn’t too concerned about salvaging the trophy but instead focused on the upcoming summer break. Playing with puns, Red Bull captioned the post, “Ready for summer-BREAK, don’t worry we could rebuild this one and it’s on his way to Milton Keynes 😁”

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Will Red Bull and Max Verstappen continue their trophy-breaking streak after the summer break?