F1 News
Marko hopes for a Ferrari problem: 'Can't do a race distance like that'
- GPblog.com
Ferrari made a strong impression on Friday in Melbourne. During FP1 and FP2 the Italian team was the fastest on track, and that was despite the Ferrari bouncing around the track quite a bit. Helmut Marko expects the porpoising to cause problems over the race distance.
Like Mercedes, Ferrari seems to suffer from porpoising again during the Australian Grand Prix. Both teams bounced quite a bit on the straights of Albert Park. Yet Ferrari doesn't seem to mind the porpoising, because Carlos Sainz was the fastest man in FP1, while Charles Leclerc finished on top during FP2.
Speaking to Auto, Motor und Sport, Marko hopes that porpoising will cause a bigger problem for Ferrari. "They can't do a race distance like that. Neither the drivers nor the cars." Leclerc confirms to the German website that the problem is more intense at some circuits. "We still have work to do to get it under control."
'We were able to keep up with Leclerc'
Marko believes in the chances of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez despite Ferrari's strong form. The Red Bull lost a lot of time in the last sector, which is why the team has switched to more downforce. The longrun analysis reveals that the Dutchman is only one tenth slower than rival Leclerc per lap.
"In the first practice we tried something that worked in the simulator, but unfortunately not on the track. When we went back to the familiar set-up with more downforce, it went better. We still lack some traction in the slow corners, but we were still able to keep up with Leclerc in the longrun," says the Red Bull advisor.