Marko plays down Red Bull performance crisis

Dr Helmut Marko has played down escalating alarm about Red Bull’s fading car performance in 2024.

Recent rumours suggest that, amid improved fortunes for rival teams McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari, Red Bull may have been quietly told by the FIA some weeks ago to discontinue a technical solution in the ’grey area’.

And now, the FIA has formally told teams that, as of this weekend’s Dutch GP, so-called ’asymmetric braking’ solutions are banned.

The solution would theoretically mean that, as well as being able to adjust brake distribution front to rear, a driver would also be able to adjust the distribution from left to right.

An FIA source, however, insisted it is "not true" that any such system has been discovered on any car on the 2024 grid.

It is well known that Adrian Newey has stepped down from most active duties at Red Bull’s top F1 team, but continuing technical director Pierre Wache denies that explains any loss of performance.

"If you spend three years developing a car concept and the regulations offer little freedom, then you automatically approach the limit," he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

"The biggest problem is that the rules are much stricter than with the old cars. We can no longer do what we want," the Frenchman added. "That’s why it’s more difficult to react to problems."

It is rumoured that, as of next weekend’s Italian GP at Monza, Red Bull may begin to experiment by backtracking on some of the car’s in-season upgrades.

"Like Mercedes at the beginning of the year, we are sometimes fast and sometimes slow depending on the conditions," team consultant Marko admits. "Sometimes it even happens in the same race as in Silverstone, where it rained."

However, the Austrian insists the situation is perhaps not as bad as is being reported. Max Verstappen leads the drivers’ standings over Lando Norris by 78 points, with McLaren trailing the teams’ table by just 42 points.

"We are better than our last results show," Marko said. "Without the bad pitstop in Spielberg, the collision with (Lewis) Hamilton in Hungary and the grid penalty in Spa, Max would be in a better position."