Marko: "We were driving with less power than Mercedes"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen was faster than Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in both sessions this Friday despite his crash during the second free practice session in Belgium. Still, according to Helmut Marko, a note needs to be made about that too.
According to the Austrian, Mercedes went virtually full speed today and Red Bull anything but. This he says to Auto, Motor und Sport. Marko says that Red Bull didn't let themselves be taken in by the wind and that there is still a lot more speed in the car.
"We were driving with less power than Mercedes. We had opened up the engine less than Mercedes. We still have half a second of speed in the barrel though."
Difficult to estimate when Mercedes will go 100%
According to Marko conclusions should be drawn after Friday's race. Red Bull itself doesn't know when Mercedes will or won't upgrade this engine.
"Of course we don't know exactly what Mercedes has done so far - sometimes they drive with more power, sometimes with less. We had the feeling that Bottas drove his last laps of the day with more power."
In that respect, Saturday in Belgium, including qualifying, will begin to shed more light. Then it will really become clear whether Mercedes is fastest on this circuit again or whether Verstappen has a chance at pole.