Helmut Marko believes that Ferrari used an aggressive engine map during the qualifying simulation in Free Practice 2 in Melbourne, but it was Charles Leclerc’s race pace that impressed him. Red Bull is lagging in finding a good setup.
The Melbourne Friday has delivered its verdicts. Of course, they cannot be definitive, but at the time of writing, it was Ferrari that showed its hand, declaring without too much doubt that it was in the best shape at the end of the first track day of the Australian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc achieved the best time in Free Practice 2 with an advantage of 380 thousandths over Max Verstappen. Almost 4 tenths. That is a situation reversed compared to what we could appreciate in the first two outings of the season, where Red Bull had a similar average advantage over the Scuderia.
At the end of the second free practice session at Albert Park, Helmut Marko tried to provide an overview of what we saw today on the track. Ferrari did not impress him on the single lap because he thinks the SF-24s used an aggressive engine mapping, unlike what was done by Red Bull.
What remained etched in the mind of the consultant for the team still led by Christian Horner was the race pace shown by Charles Leclerc.
“I believe that Ferrari used an aggressive mapping in their qualifying simulation, while we did not. That’s why I don’t consider our three-tenths deficit to them to be serious. But in the long runs, they were impressive. As for us, our setup is not yet right.”
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This time, Marko knows that Red Bull will have to work finely to catch up with the form shown by Ferrari in Australia. The margin seen in Jeddah will not suffice; targeted interventions on the setup will be needed to allow Max to get closer to the Monegasque.
“We need to make improvements. The car is not that bad. But Leclerc has set a pace that requires us to do a lot of fine-tuning on our setup. I believe that, in general, it’s necessary to say that the grid is getting closer.”
He also made a comment on the current situation Red Bull is going through after the Horner case: “Things are calming down, thank God. Eventually, everything will return to how it was before,” concluded the Red Bull consultant.
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