F1 | Marko: “Great pace from Max, but I’m betting on Leclerc’s pole”

Today was perhaps the most cautious version of Helmut Marko in the last year and a half. Red Bull’s super consultant took note of the superiority shown today by Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari, while admitting the set-up difficulties that affected the Milton Keynes team’s first day in Monte-Carlo.

Both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez encountered various difficulties in the two free practice sessions held today in the Principality. Both RB20s proved to have too rigid a set-up which made them bounce at various points on the track, so much so that Verstappen described his car as “bouncing like a kangaroo”.

The lack of feeling with his car led Max to hit the guard rails a couple of times. Fortunately for him, the car was not damaged, but it is clear that the team – as in Imola – will have to resort to painstaking work on the simulator to find the right solutions in view of tomorrow’s Qualifying.

“It’s incredible how stable these cars are. Thank goodness Max didn’t break anything in contact with the wall, but we’re still not where we’d like in terms of set-up. We’re apparently too rigid. However, we showed great race pace, but in the end it’s not a good thing if you don’t start from pole position. I would bet on Leclerc’s pole.”

“Of course we didn’t use a high engine map, so I think that Red Bull is the second fastest team behind Leclerc. We had already said it on the eve of this weekend, Charles was and is the favourite. It will be important for us improve the set-up. If we don’t improve the car, the ‘Max factor’ won’t be enough.”

With a Leclerc-Ferrari pairing in such good shape, Red Bull will not only have to aim to reduce bouncing, but also to find a way to attack the curbs better without losing aerodynamic load. Only in this way will he be able to have his say in the fight for pole position tomorrow afternoon.

“We have to look for a set-up that can allow us to attack the curbs more. Max said that the car jumped like a kangaroo, but Perez also had the same problems. We have to try not to make the car jump and not lose downforce. But we learned a lot from the long runs, so we know what direction to take to improve. But whether we’ll be able to do that before qualifying, I’d say that remains to be seen.”

Adrian Newey was seen again in the Monte-Carlo paddock. The now former technical director of Red Bull Racing was dressed in civilian clothes, with a yellow cap and the usual red notebook. His presence, however, was not directly linked to Formula 1, but rather to the RB17 hypercar that the genius from Stratford-upon-Avon is supervising in the design and construction.

“Adrian Newey is here in his role as ambassador for the RB17. Clearly he is here, but he is no longer involved in the current events for competitive reasons,” concluded Marko.