Helmut Marko believes Red Bull’s Austrian Grand Prix upgrade has taken the RB21 in the right direction.
A new floor edge was introduced to the Red Bull RB21, with Max Verstappen finishing the day three tenths of a second down on the pacesetting McLaren of Lando Norris.
Helmut Marko: McLaren still the favourites despite Red Bull RB21 upgrade
Verstappen finished Friday’s practice day with the third-fastest time, 0.318 seconds down on the fastest time set by Norris.
It’s a reasonably big gap at a track that’s just 65 seconds long, but team advisor Helmut Marko appeared reasonably confident about the progress made throughout Friday’s running when he spoke to the media following the session.
“We believe it’s not three tenths. It’s less fuel corrected. But still, we are behind. That’s clear,” he told media including PlanetF1.com at the Red Bull Ring.
“We are a bit nearer to McLaren, but still they are the favourites.
“Let’s see if we can find something in the car, but it’s very tight.
“We’ve seen hundredths [between] four or five cars and today the temperatures have been relatively low.
“Tomorrow, the forecast is much higher temperatures, so what will that really affect?”
The tweaks to the RB21 have seen the Milton Keynes-based squad alter the floor edge, with a new edge wing intended to maintain established airflow stability and to improve local load.
Marko said the upgrade was “basically” doing what was expected of it during practice and confirmed: “It’s not a big step, but the direction gives us hope.”
Verstappen’s day was somewhat unusual in that the Dutch driver is racing without GianPiero Lambiase this weekend, the first time in his Red Bull career such a scenario has happened.
Lambiase is missing the weekend due to personal circumstances, with long-serving Red Bull engineer Simon Rennie – who engineered Daniel Ricciardo between 2014 and ’18 as well as Alex Albon in 2020 – stepping into the breach for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Asked by PlanetF1.com about Rennie slipping back into a familiar role for the first time in five years, Marko said, “He was engineering Albon the last time, if I remember correctly, and he was working in the meantime on the simulators.
“But he came back and is as sharp as he was in his old days.”
As for whether it changes anything for Verstappen’s weekend, given the symbiotic relationship he has with Lambiase after almost a full decade together, the Austrian said: “It’s a very direct relationship and it’s working very well so far.
“He was happy. You didn’t hear him complaining!”
As for the four-time F1 World Champion himself, Verstappen said a key aim overnight will be on dialling out some understeer.
“Overall, today was quite straightforward and we didn’t have any big issues,” he said.
“In terms of pace, we had a bit too much understeer in the car on the short run and the long run, so that is something that we have to try and get rid of ahead of tomorrow.
“I think so far, today has been really good with Simon, I have known him for a long time on the other side of the garage as well as working with him in the sim.
“He has a lot of experience so it has been very very good today, he is straight up and it was nice.”
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