Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has appeared to rule out the team winning the Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix as he suspects this weekend will pose a “real problem”.
The encouragement that Red Bull derived from its recent upgrades in the United States was dispersed in Mexico last weekend as Verstappen struggled to sixth place.
Verstappen’s prospects at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez were dented when a clash with Lando Norris landed him two 10-second penalties as he ran in second.
However, the Dutchman’s bigger concern post-race surrounded the lacklustre Red Bull pace which saw him unable to catch the Mercedes cars during the second stint.
With Norris surviving his close calls with Verstappen to come home in second, the Red Bull driver’s championship lead is down to 47 points with four races remaining.
Marko has conceded that it is crucial that Red Bull avoids a repeat of its Mexico showing, though he does not envisage an upturn in competitiveness coming in Brazil.
“We cannot afford another race like this,” Marko told Sky Germany.
“It will certainly be very difficult, because the circuit in Brazil has very slow corners and that will also be a real problem for us.
“But Qatar is also coming up and I think we still have a chance of a victory there.”
Mexico issues down to limited track time
Marko has highlighted that Red Bull’s issues in Mexico could be traced back to the limited track time Verstappen received in practice due to recurring engine gremlins.
“In Mexico, almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” he expanded to ORF.
“The problems started on Friday of course and continued until the second practice, which ultimately yielded nothing because we could not solve the problem.”
Red Bull’s main weakness highlighted
Marko has pinpointed slow-speed corners as the key area where McLaren and Ferrari continue to have a substantial pace advantage over Red Bull’s capricious RB20.
However, the Austrian is hopeful that Red Bull’s retained prowess in high speed will see the reigning champions back in the frame in Qatar and Las Vegas next month.
“But we still have to find some pace,” he acknowledged. “We noticed that we are still losing out to Ferrari and McLaren in the slow corners, so that is not a good sign.
“But there are still two circuits on the calendar, Qatar and Las Vegas, where we should perform better.
“If we do not encounter any problems during free practice, we should be able to get the set-up right and close the gap to the competition a bit.”
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