Helmut Marko has little hope for Red Bull Racing and
Max Verstappen in Bahrain. According to the Austrian, Red Bull is simply too
slow and they suffer too much from the high temperatures.
‘’That we are too slow and that the tires get too hot”, this was Marko’s conclusion to, among others, GPblog after
the second free practice session. Where Red Bull Racing normally opts for a lower
engine mode, that didn’t make much difference on Friday according to Marko. In other words,
there is work to be done for Red Bull.
‘’The main problem is the tire temperature
that we cannot keep under control. And as soon as the temperatures goes up, you start to
slide and sliding makes it even worse. Strange enough, at one stage, the tire recovered, and we were doing the same lap times like Lando. However,
those were only three laps out of 15.’’
Why Verstappen isn’t close to the McLarens
How the problem is being caused is still unknown. ‘’If
we knew it, we would change it. However, we change things like in Japan and hopefully that will create a golden mixture of setup changes that makes us competitive tomorrow.’’
The Bahrain circuit doesn’t suit the RB21 according to Marko and
the high temperatures don’t help either. Those high temperatures cause
the tires to wear out faster and then a strong car like McLaren’s emerges more quickly.
James Allison spoke on Friday during the technical
sessions about a gap of three tenths to McLaren. ‘’Unfortunately, it’s more’’, Marko responded to GPblog‘s question. ‘’It’s the same for the long runs’’, Marko also had
little hope for the long run pace.
