Max Verstappen was beaten by Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Red Bull sports director Helmut Marko knows why the Dutchman is only allowed to attack from second place on the grid. “We didn’t find the right balance,” says the Austrian, summing up the problems. “Mercedes was better, so congratulations!”
“We brought an upgrade this weekend,” explains Marko. “The first training practically fell flat, plus the new tire rule.” That means: Red Bull has not had the opportunity to set up Verstappen’s RB19 ideally, which is why the Dutchman has been struggling with balance problems all weekend.
“Up to curve 14, that’s the finish line, we were two tenths ahead,” reports Marko about the tight decision. “Then Max had a swerve due to these balance difficulties, and in the end it was three thousandths of a second that we were missing!”
“Don’t talk about boredom!”
The competition is breathing down Red Bull’s neck and has coldly exploited the mistakes of the reigning world champion. “It’s not just Mercedes, Lando Norris is also surprising on this course,” says Marko in an interview with ‘Sky’. “And the most surprising thing of all is that suddenly two Alfa Romeos are involved in the front. So there’s no longer any talk of boredom!”
Nonetheless, the Austrian believes Red Bull have a chance of victory on Sunday. “We were doing very well in the long runs, we were the fastest there,” smiles the Red Bull head of sport and at the same time warns: “It’s very difficult to overtake in Hungary, and tomorrow it will be even hotter.”
Marko suspects that it could be a race with two or even three pit stops. “We have two cars in the top ten, maybe that can help,” he hopes. “The first corners are critical and the combination with Lewis and Max creates explosives.”
Perez with solid performance
For teammate Sergio Perez it was “only” enough for ninth place, but the Mexican made it into Q3. “That was very important for him, especially since he had the same problems as Max,” explains Marko. “Nevertheless, he was only five tenths behind, that’s the max factor, you can’t blame him for that.”
“The next races will be faster races again, and then things should go better again,” believes Marko, who is also enthusiastic about Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 return: “That’s surprisingly strong, he got to the point with P13,” says the Austrian, who sees his decision confirmed: “It provides an upswing in the team, that was planned – and therefore it was right!”
The Austrian denied current rumors from the press that Marko would be giving up his job at Red Bull at the end of the year: “I don’t know anything about that, my planning or my contract runs until next year. I don’t know where that came from.”