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Marko knows why Verstappen was twice slower than Perez in Monaco

28 May 2022 at 07:15
Last update 28 May 2022 at 11:23
  • GPblog.com

Helmut Marko was a satisfied man after the first free practice, but on Friday evening after FP2 the Red Bull Racing advisor was a lot less positive. Ferrari managed to make a big step forward, while Red Bull failed to make that leap. Marko realizes that there is work to be done.

In the second practice session of the weekend the Italian team was three tenths faster over one lap."In that area we are a little too far behind at the moment. We need to find the right balance," Marko states to Motorsport-Magazin.com. In the longruns Red Bull looked "clearly better" with the mediums, but in Monaco almost everything revolves around qualifying and so Red Bull knows what it needs to work on in the third practice session.

Verstappen was twice slower than Perez on the first day of the GP weekend, something that hasn't happened before in 2022. According to the Milton Keyns-based racing stable, this was due to a tuning experiment. "We tried something with Max, deliberately tried - but it didn't go in the desired direction," he said.

RB18 balance still lacking

The RB18 struggles with under- and oversteer, making it difficult to string together a perfect lap. Reversing a three tenths deficit in just one day seems a bit over the top, but according to Marko we shouldn't be surprised if Red Bull pulls something out of the hat in the principality. " We think we have identified the cause," he says.