Marko in high spirits after 'best Friday in ages' for Red Bull Racing and Verstappen

20:57, 18 Apr

byTim Kraaij

Helmut Marko was optimistic after the second free practice in Saudi Arabia. Marko mentioned to GPblog, among others, that it was the best Friday in a long time. Even before the Grand Prix, Marko is hopeful.

‘'I think that was the best Friday for quite a big while,’’ began Marko right after the second free practice. ‘’We made different setups and for the qualifying lap it's working. We are much closer to the McLarens.''

‘’In the long run, unfortunately the tyre wear and the tyre temperature are too high. So the game for tomorrow is that we have to find more reliability and tyre wear for the race but keep the qualifying speed.’’

The balance has often been mentioned as the weak spot of the RB21 last week. According to Marko, the faster pace in Jeddah does not suddenly indicate that the balance has improved. ‘’No, the car is still not in the balance which we wanted, but we made a step forward. And McLaren, they have a car which is working everywhere. We have to catch up but I believe on the single lap we for sure came nearer to them.''

Where do Verstappen and Red Bull Racing stand?

After Friday, Red Bull Racing’s story often remained conservative. Red Bull often dialed back the engine to not reveal too much. However, Red Bull is not doing that anymore. ‘’We can’t guessing all the time (how good we are). We want to know how far off we actually are from them.’’ It was not the first time Red Bull did this; the team did the same in Bahrain.

After Friday, there’s still work to be done for Red Bull Racing. Max Verstappen's team has found a good setup for the qualification, but now needs to find a balance where the race pace is also strong. However, Marko is confident that this time it will work.

‘’We know what the car needs for qualifying, but we need to reduce tire wear for the race. I think that’s possible,’’ concluded Marko optimistically. Yet, McLaren still seems out of reach. Marko realistically set P3 as the goal for this weekend.