28/08/2024
NEWS STORY
Fearing that both titles are at risk, Helmut Marko warns that Red Bull must turn things around.
Though we went into the summer break aware that Red Bull was under threat from McLaren, Mercedes and, to a lesser extent, Ferrari, the true extent of that threat was rammed home on Sunday afternoon with Lando Norris' commanding victory.
Whilst Max Verstappen insists that things have been going wrong with the car since Monaco, others point to the unrest within the team ever since the Horner saga broke at the start of the season, a saga which, no matter how you spin it, has seen Red Bull lose a number of key personnel, not least Adrian Newey.
Fearing that its era of domination is coming end - as they always do - Helmut Marko warns that Red Bull must react.
"If you look at his fastest lap, on his very last lap without DRS, he did a 1:13.8," said the Austrian of Norris. "So, as Max said before the summer break, the team has to work harder and must find improvements because like that his championship is in threat.
"We believed if he wins the start, we can win the race," said the Austrian of Sunday's race, which did indeed sees Verstappen overhaul pole-sitter Norris. However, once the Briton retook the lead on Lap 18 he simply disappeared up the road.
"But what was strange, Piastri was nearly the same speed as Lando and once he got behind Leclerc, it was over," said Marko. "But when Max was caught by Lando he just passed on and went away, so I don't know what's the difference and why.
"The main thing was our tyre wear was much worse than the McLaren and there was nothing to be done," he admitted. "Also on the set-up, maybe we put more wing on Max, which Checo did have less wing and in the second stint I think Checo was faster than Max. So, maybe that was the wrong decision.
"There are a lot of ideas and different ways," he continued. "But because of the summer break we couldn't do anything... but we have to do something. It goes together. We must understand the car better, that there is more balance because with more balance it's more confidence for the driver and less tyre wear.
"The updates have to bring an improvement, not only theoretically, also time-wise. We had some upgrades in Hungary, but timewise it didn't show the same result as they showed on the simulations."