Jun.3 (GMM) The depth of Red Bull’s current “problem” with its 2024 car may only become clear long after this weekend’s Canadian GP.
That is the worry of team consultant Dr Helmut Marko, as he pondered Red Bull’s slide from race winning contention recently in Monaco.
Marko revealed in Monaco that a problem with ‘correlation’ between the way the car handles bumps and kerbs in the simulator compared to the actual reality has been discovered.
Once the handling problem became clear, Red Bull realised it could not be solved.
“If we change the (ride) height, we lose a lot of downforce,” Marko told Sport1. “That’s why we are limited in this area. We mainly focused on aerodynamic efficiency when designing our car.
“However, we believe that we will still have the advantage on conventional tracks like Barcelona. If not, then we really do have a problem.”
Although much faster than Monaco, Montreal is another bumpy track at which drivers need to heavily use the kerbs, so Marko admits that it could be “another difficult race” for Red Bull.
“We understand the problems,” he told motorsport-magazin.com, “but we do not understand why they exist. Obviously this happened to us in Singapore 2023 as well.”
Marko says engineers have been working hard since Monaco.
“I think we will go to Canada with a different basic setting,” he revealed, “so that it is not as stiff as in Monaco. That practically cost us the entire first day of practice.”
But another problem, Marko says, is Sergio Perez’s Monaco crash – which he says has taken up to 3 million euros out of Red Bull’s development budget.
“Of course there will be another upgrade,” he said, “but that is now all under the condition that we have three million less. But the package is already in the making because we have to do something extra due to the stronger Ferrari and McLaren.”
However, Marko says Red Bull has one reliable ace up its sleeve.
“On circuits where we will not be very competitive, we can always count on the Verstappen factor,” said the 81-year-old. “Max is currently in top form and he can make the difference.”