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reaction from a shocked helmut marko after FP2 imola 2024

Helmut Marko upset: 'We are a second slower'

17 May at 20:45
10
  • Toby Nixon

Red Bull Racing took upgrades to Imola, but it did not help the reigning world champions get good results in the first and second free practice sessions. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were slower than the Ferraris and the McLarens, and in FP2 even both Mercedes were faster, too. Helmut Marko, Red Bull's advisor, Helmut Marko, was shocked by their pace.

Verstappen struggled with his RB20 in both practice sessions, both in the short and long runs. Red Bull was hoping to make a move on Friday towards the second free practice, but the opposite happened. "We are relatively further away [from the lead] now than earlier today. We changed things about the set-up, but in that, we don't seem to have made the right choice."

On mediums, Verstappen initially did not seem even that dissatisfied at the start of the second free practice session. However, when the Dutchman then rolled out on softs for a flying lap, there was suddenly no balance at all.

Grip, however, was not there for Red Bull, said Marko: "We have not found the grip yet, neither with the softs nor with the medium tyres. In the long runs we are a second slower," the shocked Austrian told German Motorsport-Magazin.