Red Bull’s Helmut Marko concedes the RB21 remains uncompetitive, despite technical hopes tied to the FIA’s new wing directive.
Christian Horner had repeatedly said he was counting on the Spanish technical directive, aimed at reducing wing flexibility, to help Red Bull close the gap to McLaren F1. After a Barcelona race that proved otherwise, team advisor Helmut Marko has admitted his disappointment.
“The entire weekend gave us a lot to think about,” said Marko.
“We hoped the new regulation would change things. But the car is simply too slow. We were three tenths behind, and it was the same at the beginning of the year.”
“Maybe that means McLaren has also kept developing, but better. We thought we’d be neck and neck by now. The whole weekend gave Max, and all of us, something to think about, because we saw once again that McLaren is far superior.”
Verstappen repeatedly complained about the car’s behaviour during Sunday’s race. Marko said the team has begun making progress with the RB21’s chassis.
“Our car now has a wider operating window. When everything works well, we are as fast as McLaren. The problem is that it only happens every three or four races – whereas McLaren is always competitive.”
“So for now, if we don’t fix these weaknesses quickly, the gap will become serious. I think it’s about 49 points at the moment. But we’ve seen a similar situation with Sebastian [Vettel] in 2013 – I believe he was around 47 points behind Alonso, and we managed to turn it around.”
“We’re not giving up yet, but it will be difficult. For now, Max doesn’t have a car with which he could become world champion. He is the only one who can master this car.”
Some believe Verstappen was as angry with Red Bull as he was with anyone else in Spain, especially after being fitted with hard tyres following his pit stop.
Marko, however, admits the team simply should not have pitted Verstappen.
“He told us he wanted fresh tyres and the only option left was the hard ones, but fitting them was a mistake. The alternative was to stay out. McLaren would have caught us, but we could have kept Charles Leclerc behind.”
Finally, Marko dismissed the conspiracy theory floated by Ralf Schumacher, suggesting Verstappen might be deliberately sabotaging his own chances to activate a contract release clause.
“There are very crazy theories. And that’s not what Max wants. It’s absurd. If he wanted to, he could already be doing things very differently.”
The Austrian is hoping for a very different race in Canada, both in terms of weather and Verstappen’s in-race frustration.
“I hope our car will be competitive again. And I hope the temperatures will be cooler, which could well be the case in Canada.”
“What used to be true no longer is. Hot temperatures used to be ideal for us, but now they are too hard on the tyres. I don’t know what McLaren is doing, but they can run these tyres longer than we can in terms of temperature and performance.”
“Unfortunately, Canada has few, if any, fast corners. But maybe we can set up the car to hit the right operating window. Above all, I hope we have a clean race, without any conflicts.”
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