Helmut Marko has revealed that there is still hope at Red Bull Racing, hoping that incoming upgrades will close the gap to McLaren F1.
Red Bull Racing has been facing numerous challenges recently.
Max Verstappen is struggling to defend his World Championship, Yuki Tsunoda is unable to consistently score points, and the team finds itself 4th in the constructors’ standings.
And to top it off, Christian Horner, former team principal, has been fired and replaced with Laurent Mekies.
You would expect morale to be low in the Milton Keynes-based team. However, Helmut Marko has said that changes are coming, and everyone should expect to see a turnaround in performance over the next two races.
The obvious choice
Christian Horner is no longer the team principal of Red Bull Racing. After 20 years with the team, the announcement was made that he would be moving on last week, and Laurent Mekies would be taking his place.
At the time, the Frenchman was the team principal of the sister team, Racing Bulls. He has since made the transition to Red Bull Racing, with Alan Permane stepping up to replace him at Racing Bulls.
Helmut Marko believes that the changes made were an easy decision, stating that they were the ‘obvious choice’ in an interview with Speedweek.
“A new chapter will start at Red Bull Racing and the Racing Bulls in Belgium, with Laurent Mekies as Team Principal at RBR and Alan Permane as Team Principal at the Racing Bulls.
“Since Alan [Permane] was previously the sporting director of the Racing Bulls, he was our obvious choice because we didn’t want to hire someone from outside. Basically, we just expanded his previous role.
“Laurent [Mekies] was also a natural fit for the new job for the same reasons: as an internal solution and as a man with extensive experience. Thanks to his diverse experiences, including his previous work with the FIA and Ferrari, Laurent has all the tools he needs to lead a top team with skill.”
Not giving up on the championship
Recent results haven’t lived up to Red Bull’s expectations. At their home race in Austria, Max Verstappen failed to finish the race after a lap 1 collision with Kimi Antonelli. His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, failed to minimise damage caused to their championship hopes, as he finished P16. This marked the fourth consecutive week where the Japanese driver finished outside of the points.
The British Grand Prix didn’t get much better for them. A spin on a safety car restart saw Verstappen tumble down the order, only managing to finish P5. Tsunoda once again came home empty-handed in P15.
It may seem that both drivers’ and constructors’ championships are off the table. However, there is hope among the team that they are still within reach. With 12 races to go, Marko believes that the fight is still on for Max Verstappen to try and make a miraculous comeback.
“We still have 12 Grand Prix’s and four Sprints remaining, totalling 300 World Championship points from the GPs and 32 from the sprint races. Based on this, along with additional upgrades for Belgium that should help us catch up to McLaren, we still do not believe the fight for the World Championship is over.”
Regarding Tsunoda’s challenges to finish in the points, Helmut Marko believes that his recent F1 performances are showing signs of progress.
“Yuki Tsunoda has faced challenges during some GP weekends, but we already saw an upward trend in England: the gap to Max was smaller than before in most of the free practice sessions, and he was able to start from eleventh place on the grid in England.
“We have had focused discussions with Yuki [Tsunoda], who also collaborates with sports psychologists. Unfortunately, similar to Max, he couldn’t compete effectively in the race with this wing. Nevertheless, we are observing performance improvements, and we remain optimistic that these will soon translate into points.”
A positive impact
Despite everything, there is hope in the Red Bull garage. An upgrade package is set to be brought to the next two rounds of the F1 championship in Belgium and Hungary.
Marko is hoping that with these changes, alongside the circuit layout, the Red Bull team should look more competitive. However, he did suggest that the team may be hoping for a bit of rain to help them along.
“We have the Sprint GP weekend in Belgium, followed by the Hungarian GP. The Spa-Francorchamps circuit should suit our car better, especially given the typically unpredictable weather conditions. We are optimistic about that.
“Hungary might be more challenging for us due to the track layout and the typically high temperatures. However, we will have new parts on the car for both weekends and hope this will have a positive impact.”
Co-author: Rebecca Malitz
