Marko confident Red Bull is the team to beat in Hungary: 'could be better'
Exclusive
- Ludo van Denderen
For many hours they stand there waiting: dozens of fans, mostly young girls, in front of a boutique hotel in a side street of Budapest's famous Szent Istvan square. Barely anyone can pass, it is so crowded. Who are they waiting for? Lando Norris, who has temporarily moved into this accommodation with his McLaren team. They wait for that one glimpse, that selfie, maybe even an autograph.
Lando is hot at the moment because he is the only driver who knows how to challenge Max Verstappen. Partly thanks to an excellent car McLaren has given him, the Briton has continued to be Max Verstappen's closest challenge in recent weeks. In Hungary, Norris looks to continue his good form of late, as he was fastest in FP2 on a very hot Friday at the Hungaroring.
The difference between himself and Max Verstappen was two-tenths of a second. In Formula 1, that is a huge difference, but at Red Bull, they are not at all impressed by the gap Norris had in FP2. In fact, Helmut Marko is convinced that Red Bull is once again the number one car on the grid thanks to the updates introduced this weekend. Marko believes McLaren had completely opened up the power unit in practice, whereas Red Bull still has something extra to bring on Saturday during qualifying.
Marko is positive about updates
Of course, it is still too early to make a final judgement, but the huge package of updates Red Bull introduced in Hungary seems to be working. "Max is not so satisfied yet, but we didn't drive with full engine capacity, so we could have had a better time. The long runs were very satisfying," said the Austrian. "There was more balance, more consistency so there is less understeer and oversteer, and so the car doesn't go in all directions." Verstappen still complained? "That's complaining at a high level!" Marko said.
However, fans in front of Norris' hotel are firmly hoping for a Grand Prix win from their hero. Marko also expects the one-time GP winner and his team to be the main rival for Verstappen on Sunday. The Austrian, however, observed something strange on Friday: "If I saw correctly, they have already used a set of hard tyres. That's a bit strange given the hot temperatures."
That is the type of comment from a Marko who is confident, the Marko who likes to excite the competition and, above all, the Marko who knows his Red Bull is the team to beat. In any case, that bodes well for the Red Bull team in the build-up to qualifying, later this Saturday.