12/04/2022
NEWS STORY
Following Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, Helmut Marko admits that reliability isn't Red Bull's only concern.
Understandably, Max Verstappen has been left extremely concerned about his title hopes following Sunday's Australian Grand Prix which witnessed his second DNF of the season.
As a result, the Dutchman drops to sixth in the standings, trailing his main rival by 46 points - essentially two wins.
As in Bahrain, where both Bulls failed to make it to the end, the cause of Verstappen's retirement in Melbourne is understood to be fule system related, but not the same as that which affected the team in the season opener.
However, while the Milton Keynes based outfit looks into the exact cause of Sunday's DNF, Helmut Marko warns that reliability isn't the only problem the team is facing.
"There are two or maybe three different things at play," the Austrian told Red Bull's own Servus TV. "Firstly, the reliability problems, which we hardly had last year.
"But the deficit to Ferrari was also alarming today," he continued. "They just controlled the pace, if Max upped the pace, Leclerc could react easily.
"We were negatively surprised by the speed of Ferrari," he admitted. "They had almost no graining and we already had some after a few laps. Ferrari can find a good balance with their car more easily."
Then there is the issue facing a number of teams... weight.
"We are clearly heavier than the Ferrari,” Marko admitted. "I think we have a weight handicap of about 10 kilograms. Converted to lap time, that equates to about three-tenths per lap.
"Lowering the weight is expensive," he added, the budget cap meaning that any money spent on dealing with the weight will mean less available to spend on updates as the title fight intensifies. "To start with, it's a financial issue and secondly it is also related to reliability. So it is a difficult split due to the budget cap.
"We are facing difficult times," he sighed.