Red Bull’s head of driver development and key advisor, Helmut Marko, has said he fears issues around the RB20 will not be ironed out ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, this weekend.
According to The Mirror, Marko claims problems with the car’s balance and speed have still not been addressed fully by the constructor’s technical and mechanical teams.
He said Red Bull ‘no longer have balance in the car’, and that ‘problems are likely to continue’ ahead of Formula One’s summer restart at Max Verstappen’s home Grand Prix in Zandvoort.
‘During the summer break, nothing happens for two weeks, which means that no work can be done on the car,’ Marko wrote in an editorial for Speedweek.
‘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.
Red Bull F1 advisor Helmut Marko says car still has ‘unresolved’ issues ahead of summer restart
Marko (right) says car issues are affecting Max Verstappen’s (centre) championship defence
‘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.’
This will be concerning news for Verstappen, as he looks to reignite the faltering defence of his driver’s championship.
Between Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, the pair have only managed to reach the podium once in the past four Grands Prix, failing to win a single race.
And while the 26-year-old Dutchman remains top of the driver’s championship standings with a healthy 277 points – McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sit second and third with 199 and 177 points respectively – failing to pick-up points in the next few races could spell disaster for the team’s bid to win a third consecutive constructor’s championship.
Marko emphasised that the car still can proper Red Bull to both championships, but the Dutch Grand Prix could prove a defining moment of their season.
‘One thing is clear: Qualifying in Zandvoort will be crucial, because overtaking is almost impossible there,’ Marko wrote. ‘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.’
Verstappen has previously raised concerns about the RB20 at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July.
‘I’m really frustrated, because it’s all just not good enough,’ Verstappen said. ‘In itself I don’t think there was that much wrong with my lap, but the car is just not good enough, too sensitive and also really too slow.
‘[The fact] someone then gets in my way in the last corner is annoying, but in the end that doesn’t make a big difference.
‘If you are fast enough, you are always there. All that team play really doesn’t matter to me.
‘If you are faster you overtake them, so then they can play a team game but it won’t matter. But anyway I don’t feel like we’re faster at the moment, so I’m really not happy about it either. I think I have that right because it will be another long season this way.’
Three-time world drivers’ champion Verstappen voiced concerns about his car last month
Marko says, Red Bull have failed to fix the RB20’s balance and speed issues during the summer
Helmut Marko is former professional racing driver and a current director of the Red Bull Formula One teams, and head of Red Bull’s driver development programme.
The Austrian racing veteran has overseen the development of drivers such as Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz Jr., Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen into Formula One.
Since 2005, he’s been an advisor to the Formula One teams owned by Red Bull GmbH.