Marko and Red Bull team boss Christian Horner agreed a bet ahead of qualifying for the F1 season finale over where Verstappen would qualify, following the struggles he had faced through the weekend.
But Marko’s belief that Verstappen would only line up on the second row of the grid proved wide of the mark, as the world champion pulled off a surprise pole position.
And although that meant Marko has had to hand over 500 euros to Horner, he says he is not too unhappy that his driver and engineers managed to prove him wrong.
Speaking to Motorsport.com about the bet, Marko said: “I never believed that we could come back for qualifying the way that we did. We lost in FP3 half a second just in sector three, so it was some sort of motivation also.
“Christian said front row and I said no, second row. I lost it, but I'm very happy that our engineers did a fantastic job to make the right adjustments, and also that Max in the end delivered. I should have known Max!”
Verstappen himself laughed at the fact that Marko had lost money on him, as he suggested that the Austrian should never doubt his potential.
“First of all, I think Helmut learned his lesson: never bet against me,” he said. “Of course it's always a bit of a gamble because you don't know. We already tried a lot of things on the car which didn't really seem to solve the problem.
“But I think GP [Gianpiero Lambiase] stayed calm and he definitely went through a lot of options. And then with my feedback, he came up with a very good set-up for qualifying.”
Pushed on Verstappen's claim about learning not to bet against him again, Marko said: "Unfortunately he's right."
Marko also reckoned the cooler temperatures at the end of qualifying helped Red Bull get into the right operating window.
Asked about how difficult to solve the balance issues, he said: “To lose half a second in one sector, with no grip, understeer, oversteer.
“Obviously the temperatures helped, but the main thing was that he did right the adjustments without losing top speed because not everybody was convinced that we will be in the front. And overtaking is very important, so you need the top speed.”
