Marko explains Red Bull's woes: 'Slower than Racing Bulls'

Red Bull Racing did not look very competitive in the second free practice for the Australian Grand Prix. However, there is no reason to panic yet according to Helmut Marko, who hints that Max Verstappen's F1 team was not driving at full power.

Surprisingly, Red Bull couldn't beat sister team Racing Bulls during the second Friday session in Melbourne. Verstappen and teammate Liam Lawson did not come close to the leaders, but there was no sign of a subdued mood at the team. Team boss Christian Horner, technical director Pierre Waché and chief advisor Helmut Marko, left the garage with smiles on their faces.

An upbeat Marko then addressed GPblog and other media. First asked if Verstappen would not be better off switching to Racing Bulls, he laughingly replies, " No. We just should take out some fuel and put the power on," hinting that the sister team was driving with a lighter fuel load, and thus with a slight speed advantage as well, while Red Bull was not yet running at full power.

"Not only, but the performance of the car this morning was better. So the changes we did, the car was more nervous, was going from under to oversteer. So we can't do the times of McLaren. I guess we are two, three tenths behind. So I guess the maximum tomorrow is row two," Marko replied to a question from GPblog.

Asked if he is concerned that Verstappen was unable to do a good longrun on mediums, the Red Bull advisor shrugged it off. "No. The fastest lap from him was twenty one five. So that is exactly three tenths off from the fastest time from Norris, but we believe we could make a better setup for tomorrow," he explained.

However, it is not just McLaren that Verstappen's team needs to worry about. Ferrari's pace also made an impression on Marko. "They are also fast, especially Leclerc. And, as I said, behind McLaren, it will be very tight between Mercedes, Ferrari, and us," he concluded.