Helmut Marko believes McLaren is within range of Red Bull, if an issue with ‘massive understeer’ can be resolved.
Max Verstappen finished as the quickest Red Bull driver on Friday at Silverstone, putting in the fifth-quickest time of the second practice session.
Helmut Marko reveals Red Bull’s ‘massive understeer’
A nondescript first practice session saw Verstappen finish down in 10th place on the timesheets, just over half a second off the leading pace set by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
His best time, a 1:27.4, was improved by over a second in the afternoon session, with the four-time F1 World Champion lowering the benchmark to a 1:26.3. Again, this was half a second off the top pace, with McLaren’s Lando Norris the pacesetter in the second hour.
While the single-lap pace appeared to elude Red Bull on Friday, the long-run pace between the Red Bull RB21, the McLaren MCL39, and Ferrari’s SF-25 was comparable in the mid-1:31s to low 1:32s.
Asked by PlanetF1.com to assess the day’s long-run performance, Red Bull’s Helmut Marko said a major hurdle needs to be cleared for the Milton Keynes-based squad if Verstappen is to be a contender for victory.
“We made a big step from P1 to P2, but still, we have to find the right balance,” he said.
“We have to get rid of a massive understeer through two or three corners, if we can settle that.
“The long run was more promising. So, if we can cure the problem, I think we will be competitive.”
Having not been unduly impressive over the single-lap performance, Marko said the issues with the understeer were more noticeable on the performance runs.
“Strangely enough, I think there was more of a problem in the single laps,” he said, while ruling out that engine settings played a factor in the half-second deficit in performance laptime.
“We have to get more balance in the car,” he said.
Assessing Red Bull’s immediate rivals, Marko denied that McLaren is out of reach this weekend.
“We are losing three-tenths only in Sector 2,” he said, “and that is in two or three corners. So, that’s the understeer.”
Ferrari’s performance was also notable as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished in second and third, but Marko hinted that the Scuderia was not quite as impressive as the laptimes suggested and that the red cars will be Red Bull’s big rival this weekend.
“What I saw, they had massive graining after quite a few laps,” he said.
“Like Mercedes also had graining, and our graining was reasonable. We were quite quick laps, so that’s a good sign.”
Speaking at the end of the practice day, Verstappen himself was blunt in his assessment of how things had gone on track.
“For me personally, it was quite a bad day, no balance in the car,” he said.
“It’s very difficult corner to corner as well. So yeah, quite a poor day, I think, for us in general.”
The blustery wind affected the handling of the RB21 “a lot”, he explained, but “that’s not an excuse, because everyone has to deal with that, right? So it’s not easy, but the same for everyone.
“With the wind around here, it seems like our car seems quite sensitive to it. But then, generally, it hasn’t been an easy day.
“Overall, yeah, we’re just lacking a bit of performance.”
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