Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has denied that not boasting a rear wing tailored to the long straights at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix was behind the team’s troubles.
The Austrian outfit’s ongoing tribulations took a deeper turn at Monza last weekend, as Max Verstappen bemoaned extreme balance problems en route to sixth place.
With Sergio Perez trailing home in eighth, McLaren’s double podium has put it eight points behind Red Bull and poised to secure the lead in the championship in Baku.
However, Verstappen expressed post-race that Red Bull’s problems are so considerable that protecting his now 62-point advantage over Lando Norris is “not realistic”.
Marko, who stated earlier in the weekend that the squad’s struggles were “starting to get serious”, has conceded that Red Bull was powerless to obtain a better result.
“This was the maximum for us. It’s also no surprise because nothing from the past helps anymore,” Marko told Motorsport.com.
“In the past hot weather was actually good for us, but now we are way too far away from it. We need to find a solution very quickly.”
Red Bull opted to run an inverted strategy in the race as both drivers started on the Hard compound, while the six competitors ahead on the grid were on the Medium.
However, Red Bull was unable to mirror the one-stop that won Charles Leclerc the race as Marko revealed that extreme degradation made it impossible with its RB20.
“For us it was not possible to do such a thing,” he expressed. “Did you see the tyres? If we had continued two or three more laps, a tyre would have blown.”
Marko at least took solace in Leclerc’s strategic gamble working out as the Monegasque’s triumph on Ferrari’s home soil denied McLaren landing a bigger points haul.
“I’m extremely happy with Ferrari today, and with the risk they took with that one-stop. This result is perfect for Monza and the way is also nice,” he said.
When it was put to him that risk-taking was rewarded in this instance, Marko replied with a grin: “Yes, good for everyone except McLaren!”
Meanwhile, Marko has ruled out not bringing a Monza-specific rear wing hampered Red Bull, citing that doing so would have exacerbated the issues it had with tyres.
“A car with a smaller wing would probably have been even less competitive this weekend, because something like that would be even worse for the tyres” he added.
“That is an important part of the problem.”
Marko has indicated that implementing more updates to the car in the upcoming rounds will not resolve Red Bull’s problems unless it rediscovers a better balance.
“I don’t know if it’s just in updates,” he pondered. “The most important thing is to find a better balance in the car again.
“We have to go all the way back in time and see exactly where we took a wrong turn.”
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