The Red Bull consultant said he was very pleased with the new approach adopted by the team during practice: Max Verstappen is very close to McLaren. Then he aimed a jab at Ferrari, noting that the Reds had already been running today with an aggressive engine map.
199 thousandths of a second. That was the gap between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the end of the second free practice session of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
The four-time world champion showed some very interesting things in the afternoon, and Helmut Marko, consultant for the Red Bull team, confirmed how the new working method adopted by the Milton Keynes squad is paying off. He stressed that the team was very satisfied, describing the improvement compared to last year as significant. He pointed out that the race pace was very good, while on the Softs in qualifying trim there was still a little room for progress, but the gap to McLaren was not large. He underlined that it seemed more a matter of getting the tyres into the right window. If McLaren was not bluffing, then things could become very interesting.
Marko explained that the approach during free practice had changed compared to the past. Now the team is trying new things and pushing almost to the limit already in practice sessions. This, according to him, makes it possible to reach the maximum performance of the car much earlier and to be closer to the right setup direction.
For every satisfied Marko talking about what Red Bull is building, there is also a sharp Marko taking aim at rivals. This time Ferrari was in his sights. The Reds had scored a 1-2 in Free Practice 1 and second place with Charles Leclerc in Free Practice 2, just 0.08s behind Norris. Studying GPS data, Marko noticed how Ferrari, and several other teams, had already used aggressive engine modes in at least one of the two sessions. He noted that Ferrari being strong was not a surprise, because at Monza Ferrari is always fast on Fridays. He added that he believed several teams were already running with the most aggressive engine maps.
He also commented on Stefano Domenicali’s interview, published on Scuderiafans.com. Marko gave his own view mainly on the length of grands prix and the idea of the reverse grid. In general, he argued that if races are boring it is better that they are shorter. On the reverse grid, he remained sceptical, especially with the current cars. He underlined that if overtaking is difficult even at Spa, then a reverse grid could hardly work.
However, looking ahead to next year, Marko added that the rules will change. Overtaking should become easier and at that point the reverse grid might become an option worth considering. He remarked that in Formula 2 and Formula 3 the system works very well.
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