Red Bull will not solve its issues in the coming weeks, insists Marko
Red Bull Motorsport Advisor Dr Helmut Marko insists that the Milton Keynes-based squad will not solve its issues completely in the coming weeks, but hopes that "brainstorming" will help the team get on top of the problems.
Red Bull enjoyed a strong start to its 2024 F1 title defence, winning four of the opening five rounds. It looked like that the Milton Keynes-based outfit would dominate the third year of the current era of ground-effect cars until McLaren and Ferrari achieved a sudden lift in performance.
The Scuderia won in Australia and then in Monaco while the British squad took the victory in Miami. Following a successful upgrade in Monaco, Mercedes also started to claw its way back to the sharp end of the field. So impressive was the step the Brackley-headquartered outfit took that they managed to win three of the last four races.
Although Red Bull still leads the Constructors' Championship, but its lead from McLaren has been cut down to just 42 points. In the drivers' standings, reigning world champion Max Verstappen still enjoys a healthy lead of 78 points from Lando Norris, but his initial commanding march has been slightly dampened recently.
Speaking of Red Bull's situation in his column on German publication Speedweek, Marco noted: "During the summer break, nothing happens for two weeks, which means that no work can be done on the car.
"We have to solve our problems and find out where the problem lies, because we no longer have the balance in the car if you compare the current situation with the first three races.
"But it is difficult to estimate how quickly that will happen. I don't think that the big solution will come in Zandvoort. We are brainstorming intensively and have various ideas. But I can't say yet what we will implement and how.
Following the three-week summer break and two-week factory shutdown, the field will assemble at Zandvoort where the Dutch Grand Prix kicks off the last double-header of the European leg of the season. The Austrian hopes that Verstappen will deliver a good performance in the all-important qualifying session at Zandvoort where overtaking is at a premium due to the tricky track layout.
"One thing is clear: Qualifying in Zandvoort will be crucial, because overtaking is almost impossible there. And Max could well manage a good qualifying, because he has been good there recently.
"We were the fastest in Austria and also in Spa. In Hungary we were only a few hundredths of a second off - so we are complaining at a high level," concluded Marko.
