Red Bull’s quick setup adjustments in Jeddah helped them close the gap to McLaren, delivering a strong performance despite the challenges.
Helmut Marko believes that Red Bull loses significant time compared to McLaren F1 during free practice sessions. While the British team quickly finds its pace for the weekend, the Austrian outfit unlocks performance until the final part of FP3, getting closer to the top teams just before qualifying.
“Our Friday practice sessions are neither good nor bad. We struggle to get the car into the right balance for qualifying. If the practice sessions were better organized, we could identify this earlier, like on Friday. We need to make a lot of changes.”
However, things were better in Jeddah: “I think it was the best Friday we’ve had in a while. We made different setup adjustments, and for the qualifying lap, it worked. We were much closer to McLaren.”
Marko acknowledges that a win was possible for Max Verstappen without the penalty: “The positive is that we had the pace, and tire wear was under control. But once again, we saw how difficult overtaking is. After the penalty, we focused on securing second place.”
The ease with which they found the right setup window for the RB21 was a key factor in their strong performance in Jeddah, along with other elements Marko elaborates on: “The clear improvement compared to Bahrain is due to several factors.”
“We’ve moved in the right direction with the setup, and it paid off once again. Finding the right setup is difficult with our car, but if we hit the optimal window of efficiency, the car is very competitive. If it doesn’t work, like in Bahrain, we end up around sixth.”
“The improvement is also related to the track characteristics. Bahrain has mainly medium-speed corners and a very rough surface. Jeddah is completely different – it features very fast, flowing corners and asphalt that causes almost no tire wear.”
“We noticed that the drivers barely complained about tire issues during the race, and they were able to push to the limit. I mentioned that Red Bull needed to rethink its approach during practice, and that was implemented in Jeddah, such as making our qualifying simulations more realistic, giving us a better indication of our position.”
Marko Insists: Verstappen Was Ahead on the Brakes
Marko firmly stands by his view that Verstappen’s penalty cost him the win: “Looking back at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, I maintain that Max Verstappen’s five-second penalty cost him the victory.”
“Overtaking is becoming more and more difficult in modern F1, because as soon as a driver gets into the wake of the car ahead, not only does their car lose aerodynamic performance, but it also affects the tires.”
“In Jeddah, we saw how Max was able to pull away from Oscar Piastri by 2.5 seconds in the first part of the race. After the pit stop, Verstappen closed the gap to the Australian, which shows he had the pace to win. But in the end, Max couldn’t get close enough to attack Piastri.”
“There wasn’t much radio discussion about letting Piastri through to avoid the penalty. Our strategy expert and FIA contact had flagged it. We had seen several similar incidents in Formula 2 at Turn 1, where no penalties were handed out, just warnings. Luke Browning even did it twice without any penalty.”
Marko also points out that Verstappen passed Piastri around the apex, omitting that this was due to Verstappen’s higher speed, which would have prevented him from making the first corner.
“We saw the situation more as a racing incident, which can happen in the first corner after the start. The footage was a bit misleading. The first camera angle clearly showed Piastri ahead, but by the braking zone itself, Max was ahead again.”
“Therefore, we were optimistic about there being no penalty and decided not to give up the position, knowing that once Max was behind Piastri, it would be hard to get past the McLaren. Max’s start wasn’t as good as Piastri’s; Verstappen had wheels spinning in second and third gears, which allowed Piastri to level the playing field.”
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Red Bull’s Jeddah Setup Boost: How They Reversed the Tide Red Bull’s Jeddah Setup Boost: How They Reversed the Tide
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