Red Bull – Marko: « Impossible to be on top with 80 horsepower less »
After a weekend in Malaysia during which the Austrian team alternated between good and not so good, Helmut Marko complains about a lack of power and thinks that the car designed by Adrian Newey is a good design. For him, the weak link in the whole package is the Renault engine.
Despite an improvement, particularly in qualifying where both RB10s ranked in the top five cars, with a podium finish for Sebastian Vettel at the Grand Prix, Helmut Marko, head of the Red Bull program, is still not satisfied with Renault’s engine performance.
He implies, on the official Formula 1 website, that the French engine supplier is not yet up to the mark: Together, with Toro Rosso and Renault, we have started a collaboration to move forward. He asserts that with a better engine, the situation would be different: Yes, we would still be at the top, but right now, with 80 horsepower less, it’s just impossible.
While remaining realistic, he still drives the point home: « You must work with what you have since there is no way to say « starting tomorrow we will use a Mercedes engine – assuming they give it to us – because this car is built around the Renault engine. »
For its part, the engine manufacturer in Viry-Châtillon claims to be doing everything possible to improve the situation for Red Bull. Rémi Taffin, the head of Renault Sport F1’s track activities, states: The positive is that, unlike in Melbourne, we are not going to the next Grand Prix with a long list of corrections to make, but rather with developments that will provide us with more power and performance in Bahrain.
Apart from a lack of power, the Austrian team believes it has part of the solution under control, especially in the area of top speed. Marko explains to the German television Sky: « We are doing everything possible to improve our straight-line speed without altering the behavior in the curves. I must say that from this point of view, we are making progress. »
In the German daily newspaper Bild, he concludes: « We are bringing new components from the factory in Bahrain, and Renault is bringing a new software update for its engine. » The next race will give us the opportunity to measure the progress made by the team, which might well be capable of preventing Mercedes from soaring too easily towards the title.
