Marko has good news for Verstappen after a promising day in Monza
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- Nicole Mulder
The first two free practice sessions did not go smoothly for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, but Helmut Marko is confident Red Bull Racing will be in a better position at Monza than at the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort.
Marko reacts after FP2 in Monza
Based on the lap times in FP2 (P14 for Verstappen and P15 for Perez), Red Bull may not look good, but Marko says the team has made improvements. "No, but it looks... or we are better than it looks," the 81-year-old Austrian sounded cautiously positive when talking to GPblog and others.
"On the qualifying simulation, Max had a wobble in Parabolica. There he was two tenths, I guess, behind Norris, but with not normal engine power, like the others had," Marko explained. "And in the long run, until draining started, we were very competitive, but then the drop-off was a little bit radical. It came together when he had to slow down, I think, a car in front of it, so we have to sort that. But basically much better than in Zandvoort."
Red Bull have worked hard on the RB20's balance problems and, according to the top advisor, that is no longer the main problem either. "Oh, definitely. Also from FP1 onwards. But it's the graining. When the graining starts, it's radical, and the car falls back into its under-oversteer," Marko continued, adding that the phenomenon occurs after around five to seven laps.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi
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