Red Bull’s dominance has steadily vanished away this season with only three wins in the last nine Grands Prix. Despite their initial success in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Max Verstappen has struggled for performance with the RB20’s fundamental shortcomings, particularly in Hungary. Now, Helmut Marko feels that their problems may persist for Verstappen’s home race in Zandvoort.
Writing in his column for Speedweek, the Red Bull advisor stated, “During the holidays, nothing happens for two weeks, which means that no work on the car is possible.”
Helmut Marko, motorsport advisor at Red Bull, in the columns of Speedweek: “During the holidays, nothing happens for two weeks, which means that no work on the car is possible.”
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The summer break certainly would have affected Red Bull’s developmental work. With a total lockdown for all teams’ factories and wind tunnels, the Milton Keynes outfit can’t make the most of the elongated gap between races to hone their upgrade packages.
As a result, Marko said, “I do not think that a big solution will come to Zandvoort”. The Austrian stated that they are brainstorming on solutions to mitigate their issues. However, he is not sure about the timeline.
Even Verstappen has reiterated that the issue with the suspension being rigid and hurting their ride on bumpy tracks is a fundamental one and may not be ironed out before next season.
So, the Dutchman may have to fight tooth and nail if he aims to preserve his impeccable record at Zandvoort — having won each of the three races since the track’s return in 2021.
Verstappen will have to produce something special at the Dutch GP
Zandvoort being a narrow track like Hungary and Singapore, track position will be crucial and Verstappen will have to put his best foot forward in qualifying. Even Marko highlighted the same that qualifying could be Red Bull’s chance to eke out a mega result at the Dutch GP.
The Austrian mentioned Verstappen‘s qualifying brilliance in Belgium — where he went over half a second quicker than anyone else. Marko also recalled how Austria was a good qualifying session and even in Hungary they only fell short by a few hundredths.
The qualifying at Zandvoort may be quite similar to Hungary, owing to the similar high downforce characteristics. Thus, Verstappen may have better chances to secure pole and control his race from there. While it doesn’t guarantee him the win, the Dutchman’s defensive skills can come in handy to end his four-race winless streak.
