Red Bull With Verstappen In 'Better Position' Than Latest Results Suggest Says Marko
F1Tuesday, 20 August 2024 at 14:00
Helmut Marko explained Red Bull's current struggles but asserted that the team is not doing as badly as its latest results suggest.
Red Bull scored 58.57% of their total points (239 out of 408) in the first six race weekends of the 2024 season. There were 14 race weekends in total before the summer break.
This means the team from Milton Keynes collected fewer points in the last eight race weekends than they did in the first six.
To put it differently, the Austrian team went from scoring 39,8 points per weekend on average to scoring 21,1 points per weekend on average. Their performance in terms of results almost halved.
What could have caused this sudden decline? Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko told Auto Motor und Sport:
“"At the start of the season, we had a car that was as balanced as the McLaren is now. It could handle all tracks and all conditions. Then we took a wrong turn somewhere. The car has become a bitch that only Max can tame."”
“"They made the car more and more unpredictable. It became more and more difficult to set it up and balance it."”
It is said that Red Bull's latest upgrade was a step sideways rather than forward, which not only made it tougher for their drivers but also allowed rivals like McLaren, Mercedes, or Ferrari to gain on them.
Marko compared Red Bull's current situation to Mercedes at the beginning of the year when the German team struggled with consistency and the unpredictability of its cars.
“"Like Mercedes at the beginning of the year, we are sometimes fast and sometimes slow depending on the conditions. Sometimes, even in the same race as in Silverstone, where it rained in between."”
However, the 81-year-old also noted that the latest four Grand Prix weekends—in which Red Bull scored only one podium—do not totally reflect reality.
“"We are better than our last results; without the bad pit stop in Spielberg, the collision with Hamilton in Hungary, and the grid penalty in Spa, Max would be in a better position."”
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