Red Bull has made very clear progress with its RB18 at Imola, but the single-seater still shows excess weight on the scale.
The work done by Red Bull Racing to make his RB18 more reliable paid off at Imola, as did the attempt to upgrade it in terms of performance. Max Verstappen et Sergio Pérez signed the double at the end of a race skilfully controlled by the Milton Keynes team, a result which clearly galvanized the troops.
“This weekend is extremely important for the morale of our team”does not hide Helmut Marko, special consultant of Red Bull, interviewed by Motorsport.com. “We have now proven that we really have a competitive package for this year. We were faster than Ferrari here. We put the tires in the right window and our whole execution, including finding the balance of the car “, was much better this weekend than in Australia. Basically, Ferrari encountered the problems that we had in Australia.”
Red Bull entered this Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna with a slightly modified single-seater, in particular with a view to reducing its weight. Because at the very beginning of the season, she was ten pounds overweight on the scale in relation to the minimum weight fixed by the regulations. A figure not yet reached, but which the Austrian team is gradually approaching.
“The changes we made this weekend all worked well”says Helmut Marko. “The car has lost weight, but we still have work to do in that area. We are still above the FIA minimum weight. That means we have to work step by step to reach this figure, but “It’s normal. When you do a Weight Watchers (sic), you don’t lose all the weight at once.”
If everything smiled at Red Bull on the lands of Ferrariwhere the full points were made by Max Verstappen, including during the sprint, Helmut Marko believes that “the difference was not that huge” with the Scuderia. “We were only one or two tenths faster in pure rhythm”he says. “We just managed the tires better. What went wrong in Melbourne for us happened to Ferrari this time around. They suffered from graining much earlier than us due to the balance of the car.”
The accounting operation was improved by the error made at the end of the race by Charles Leclercle championship leader thus falling from third to sixth place overall. “We have to put pressure on Ferrari”claims Helmut Marko. “When you put the pressure on, luckily things like that can happen.”
Interview by Ronald Vording