Marko saw Red Bull make wrong assessment in test days
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Red Bull Racing could not have opened the season more disappointingly than it did in Bahrain. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were forced to retire early due to fuel supply problems, which prevented the Austrian team from scoring a point. According to Helmut Marko, Red Bull could have discovered the problem sooner, he told Auto, Motor und Sport.
Whereas Christian Horner's team made a good impression during the test days in Barcelona and Bahrain, Red Bull had a harder time in the opening weekend. In the night from Friday to Saturday, according to Marko, the team made a misjudgment with the set-up, which caused the Austrians to lag behind for the rest of the weekend.
In addition, there was a problem with the fuel supply. Where Verstappen stalled in the closing stages, it was Perez a few laps later who the same thing happened to. The team suspected that both drivers were dealing with the same problem and upon further investigation this turned out to be correct.
Red Bull cuts itself in the fingers
Red Bull did not conduct a race simulation during the test days. Marko states in the interview that he doesn't think the problem would have occurred in Bahrain if the racing stable had done so. "If we had done that we would have possibly nipped the problem we experienced in the race in the bud," the advisor said.