Marko reveals root cause of RB20's issues with kerbs and confirms his recent COVID disease

Red Bull's Motorsport advisor Dr. Helmut Marko has confirmed that the Milton Keynes-based outfit has the necessary tool to simulate the kerbs, but the team was simply unable to set up its simulations correctly.

Max Verstappen has returned to winning ways at last Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix after having failed to finish the previous round in Monaco on the podium. Red Bull's Motorsport advisor Dr. Helmut Marko labelled the Dutchman's performance in the wild and difficult race of Montreal as the "Verstappen factor."

The Anglo-Austrian team held an uncomfortable discussion with the stewards after the Montreal race as it emerged that they deliberately asked Sergio Perez to crawl back to the pits with his damaged car to avoid a potential safety car scenario.

Red Bull admitted to the stewards that they tried to avoid an interruption which could have endangered Verstappen's lead. The Anglo-British outfit were handed a hefty fine of EUR25000 for the incident. The Mexican was also given a penalty which will see him suffer a three-place grid drop at next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

Asked about the incident in an interview conducted by oe24, Marko said: "We're not discussing it anymore, we can get over the three places drop. At the time we didn't know how bad the damage was. We couldn't see it with the camera settings we had available.

"We wanted Checo to keep driving because anything was possible in this race. And you never know how much debris will fly away. Others have driven around with more dangling parts. Lewis Hamilton once won at Silverstone on three wheels."

Verstappen has increased his lead from 31 to 56 points from second-placed Charles Leclerc thanks to his latest victory. However, the Dutchman complained about the behaviour of his RB20 over the kerbs which has hindered the team's performance on tracks like Montreal or Monaco.

Speaking of the performance of the car, Marko said: "It won't be a clear story because our car and our simulator have certain weaknesses. But we are working hard to fix that. We have always known that we won't win every race. It is good for us that the others cannot achieve consistency. If everything goes normally for us, Max will be ahead in the championship.

"It doesn't simulate the kerbs properly. It's technically up to date, it just hasn't been fed (by the right information) or interpreted properly."

Mercedes appeared to have totally closed in on the field-leading trio of Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari in Montreal which was explained by the upgrades that the Brackley-based outfit introduced over the period of the last three rounds in Imola, Monaco and Montreal.

Marko said that the races in Spielberg and Silverstone will be the real test for Mercedes' heavily-revised W15.

"Let's see. The next three races will show how good the cars really are. Mercedes was strong last year in Barcelona (where the next GP will take place on 23 June) and then not anymore. After that come two real race tracks, Spielberg and Silverstone, then we'll know where we really stand."

Speaking of his own health, Marko has confirmed that he suffered from a Coronavirus infection between the Monaco and the Montreal rounds, but he has fully recovered for now.

"After the Monte Carlo weekend (end of May) I was pretty down. I had Covid and couldn't even talk. I'm feeling fine now."

"There is still a bit more going on around the Austrian Grand Prix, that's true. Hopefully the coming weekend will be quiet," he was quoted as saying by oe24.