Red Bull has ’no idea’ where 2024 went wrong - Marko

Red Bull remains in the dark about its ongoing and deepening slide from Formula 1 dominance.

Championship leader Max Verstappen was having a better weekend at high-speed Monza compared to the slower and more twisty Zandvoort circuit a week ago - until Q3 for the Italian GP on Saturday.

"Incomprehensible," declared Dr Helmut Marko, referring to how Verstappen was suddenly slower on brand new tyres for the decisive qualifying phase.

"There is something that isn’t working logically," the team consultant told Sky Deutschland, after Verstappen was not only slower than the two McLarens but also the two Mercedes and two Ferraris.

"Thank God this is Monza, where you can overtake," Marko added. "But if we lack speed in the race again, like in the previous race, then the situation looks very serious."

Explaining the poor handling of his 2024 car, Verstappen said the single seater "just wouldn’t turn anywhere. Not in turn one, turn four, turn six, turn seven. It’s either understeer or oversteer. Actually, a bit of both."

Like Marko, he agreed that going slower on fresh tyres is "bizarre", adding: "The long run wasn’t that great either, so we’ll see. But now we’re at the back of the group."

Both Verstappen and Sergio Perez declared on Thursday that Red Bull had begun to understand the problems, having even reverted to the original Bahrain-spec floor.

But Verstappen admitted on Saturday: "We have never found the problem."

Despite his 70-point gap over McLaren’s Lando Norris, Verstappen’s fourth consecutive drivers’ championship is increasingly looking in very real danger.

"We all expected Norris to win and Max to finish second," Dutch racing personality Tom Coronel told Viaplay. "Then it will still be fine. But more races like this, if Max is now sixth or seventh, that gap will close very quickly."

Indeed, if Norris wins on Sunday and Verstappen is only P7, the gap will close by a whopping 19 points - or even 20 if the McLaren scores the fastest lap.

"I see that they have really lost their way," Coronel continued. "Not a little bit, but with every step they take now, they are going backwards."

Another Dutch pundit, Christijan Albers, pointed out after qualifying that Red Bull had pulled a brand new monocoque from a truck, perhaps suspecting a chassis flaw for Verstappen.

"I don’t know if it will be used in the race," said the former F1 driver, "but one thing is for sure - Max is absolutely not happy with the car."

Marko continued: "We have to face the truth; our car is not what it was at the start of the season. The engineers have to find the point where we took a wrong turn.

"That is not easy because there have been many development steps since the start and we still have no idea what is responsible for which reaction of the car."

Red Bull could be about to put the current McLaren and Mercedes-style front wing designs back under the spotlight.

Lando Norris, on pole at Monza compared to Max Verstappen’s P7, could close the 70-point gap to the championship leader by a full 20 points on Sunday.

"If this is about the championship, then I’m not going to answer the question," McLaren’s Norris snapped at a reporter for Viaplay after qualifying.

"That’s a fact," he added about the hypothetical points scenario for Sunday’s Italian GP, "but the race still has to be run, so I haven’t made up any points yet."

The entire F1 paddock, including Red Bull, are wondering what has gone wrong lately for Red Bull.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has his theory.

"A lot has happened there," he told De Telegraaf. "With Rob Marshall, Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, they’ve lost a lot of experience and talent in a short space of time.

"You can’t tell me that hasn’t had an impact," Brown insisted.

"Also when you look at the morale of the staff, there may be more people who also want to leave. Looking at Red Bull from the outside, it seems like a disrupted place.

"Christian Horner and Helmut Marko sometimes say completely opposite things in the media, while Andrea Stella and I tend to finish each other’s sentences."

However, Red Bull consultant Marko told ORF after qualifying at Monza that the team still has unanswered questions about the way the McLaren and Mercedes front wings work - and flex.

"The front wing of McLaren and Mercedes must be analysed," Marko said on Saturday.

Dutch racing personality Tom Coronel told Viaplay: "Everyone wants to know McLaren’s secret, because it’s worth a lot of money.

"If you do well with high downforce and low downforce, like Zandvoort and now Monza, and you’re good with tyre management everywhere, then they’re going to be collecting big trophies for the rest of the season."

Former Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos thinks Red Bull’s handling problems are hurting Verstappen more than his teammate Sergio Perez - with the gap between them much smaller in the past two grand prix weekends.

"When the car is less good, the gap between Max and Perez is smaller," he told Ziggo Sport. "That indicates that there is no balance, so the car can no longer listen to Max’s talent.

"They’ve even gone back to the original floor from Bahrain - that’s race one," Doornbos exclaimed. "They’re trying to figure out where they made the wrong development choices.

"Personally, I think there’s a bit of a secret in these front wings. Christian Horner is saying it too. They’re doing something different with them."