F1 | Marko: “I fear Ferrari in Monaco because only qualifying counts”

Helmut Marko celebrated yet another success for Max Verstappen and Red Bull, but realized that things, at least in the next grands prix, will no longer be as easy as they were in 2023 and in the final part of the season 2022.

McLaren and Ferrari have made big steps forward, so much so that they have almost completely closed the gap on performance from the RB20s. The Woking single-seaters, at Imola, showed an even greater pace than that which led Max to victory number 59 of his career, but qualifying was decisive for Sunday’s result.

Verstappen suffered on the Hard tyres, fitted in the final stint of the race. Red Bull had not had the opportunity to test them, fixing the problems of the RB20 number 1 that arose on Friday but only for the Medium compounds.

“I’m not surprised by the fact that Norris managed to catch up with Verstappen, because already after 2 or 3 laps we saw that the temperatures on the Hard tires were dropping,” said the Red Bull super consultant at the end of the Made in Italy Grand Prix and Emilia Romagna.

“Max’s tires were not in the right window of use. In the end I was worried, because Max was driving without any errors. Fortunately Lando had two or three uncertainties that took him out of the DRS zone in the last laps.”

“Our difficulties don’t come directly from Friday. On Friday we were completely far from the ideal set-up and we made some changes. We found a good solution for the medium tyres, in fact we were competitive with those compounds, but we weren’t competitive with the Hard ones” .

Imola is behind us, but there is no time to breathe. The teams are already taking all the material to Monte-Carlo where the Monaco Grand Prix will be held this weekend. A very different track from the Enzo and Dino Ferrari of Imola, which could enhance the characteristics of the SF-24 more than those of the MCL38, single-seaters that shone both in Miami and on the track located on the border between Emilia and Romagna.

“We know that we will have to fight in Monaco, for sure. And Monte-Carlo is a track where everything is decided in qualifying. It will probably be one of the most difficult for us also due to the curb issue. But I think the Ferraris will be stronger than the McLarens . Because it’s all about qualifications,” concluded Marko.