Marko addresses Verstappen's problems and has few concerns

Indeed, Verstappen's individual sector times looked fine according to Marko. It was purely that he did not manage to put a whole lap together."Otherwise, he would be at least two-tenths ahead of the rest," said the 80-year-old consultant, who then let slip that he does feel impressed by the updates Ferrari brought to Imola.

In the press conference, technical director Pierre Waché also touched on Verstappen's problems in the first session of the weekend. "Yes. I think he [Verstappen] clearly has some issues in the turn 11, 12 and 14. Something we are looking for. I think the guys are there at the moment when we speak to look at the data to see what we can do on the setup to help him. I will not say it's a normal Friday for him, but it's a normal Friday as an engineer to try to improve the car for the next session."

Updates

Red Bull itself also came to Italy with a few improvements, but Verstappen and Sergio Perez indicated on Thursday that no miracles should be expected from them. McLaren made a decent jump in Miami, and Ferrari looks set to do so this weekend. Marko, however, is not worried about that, he told German Sky."We brought things gradually, they simply choose to implement everything at once."

Waché further added in the press conference, "We feel pressure to put performance on the car. I think all the people here feel the pressure to put performance on the car. It would be a dream. It's a dream to think that we can sleep on it and think we can wait and win the championship like that. In this business, you have to go ahead. Otherwise, you go backwards. For sure, we are looking to put performance on the car. It doesn't matter if last race we win or not."

Record Senna in sight

Verstappen has two more hours (FP2 and FP3) to find the right set-up for qualifying and the race. If the Dutchman captures pole position on Saturday, it will be his eighth in a row in Formula 1 and equals Ayrton Senna's record.