Jul.19 (GMM) Dr Helmut Marko says he’s not overly worried that Red Bull’s rivals appear to be closing the performance gap.
Max Verstappen is positively cruising to his third consecutive drivers’ world championship – but at Silverstone recently, a vastly improved McLaren car led the charge to end that dominance.
Marko says he isn’t worried.
“Even if the cars are all equally fast, then we still have the Max factor,” the top Red Bull official told Speed Week.
“Nobody can hold a candle to him at the moment.
“The updates from our competitors have brought about a shift, but without wanting to be arrogant, they really haven’t come that much closer to us.”
Verstappen, 25, revealed last time out at Silverstone that Red Bull will have its own upgrades in the luggage this weekend in Hungary.
F1-insider.com and Auto Motor und Sport believe the most significant change will be to the sidepods – with the upgraded Red Bull to now feature Aston Martin-style sidepod channels.
Team boss Christian Horner believes it could be worth two tenths per lap.
“The changes to the bodywork should be visible to the naked eye,” said correspondent Andreas Haupt.
“It has been rumoured that Red Bull is always looking at the competition, especially Aston Martin with its deep groove in the sidepods.
“With the upgrade in Baku, the RB19 won about two tenths – which is a lot these days. The Budapest upgrade could be on the same scale.”