Max Verstappen secured a record-breaking tenth consecutive
Formula 1 victory in Monza last year in an ultra-dominant
Red Bull Racing season. However, this year's
Italian Grand Prix went dramatically wrong for the team. There is a bright spot though: according to
Helmut Marko, the Dutchman has identified the RB20's weak point.
Verstappen was critical after the Italian GP. Not just about the
F1 race and the course of the weekend, but particularly about the state of his car. The three-time world champion stressed that his team pretty much "has to change the whole car" for the race weekend in Baku to still be competitive. If not, he does not think winning the world title is realistic.
Marko: 'Verstappen has identified weakness of car'
One positive about the poor weekend in Monza, according to Marko, is that the team has come a step closer to finding the cause of all the problems. "Max recognised on Saturday where the weakness of the car is," he is quoted by De Telegraaf as saying . "Together with the engineers, a decision has been made on how to improve the car and make it competitive again."
"We just need to find out which part has made the car worse. If we knew that, we would not be in this situation," he added. The 81-year-old Austrian said that Red Bull will try things out again at the next race in Baku, but added that it is more realistic for the team to be competitive again only in Austin.
This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton