During the pre-season testing, Max Verstappen reported some driveability issues in his brand-new RB 19 for the 2023 season. But coming into the Grand Prix weekend, the current world champions were fine and won the season’s first race seamlessly.
However, it has left the bosses at Red Bull confused. They cannot figure out what caused the car to be so difficult to drive right before the season start.
Red Bull chief Helmut Marko claims that the team drove with the same setup. However, on the same track, the car behaved differently, and they have been unable to wrap their heads around it since then.
An interesting stat: Red Bull’s Bahrain victory was the most dominant start of the season in 25 years. Last time race leader finished so far ahead of his closest rival was back in 1998 Australian GP.
Funnily enough, it was Adrian Newey’s designed car too (McLaren MP4-13). #F1 pic.twitter.com/h0fAwcdo7P
— Simon Dau (@there_is_no_if) March 10, 2023
Also read: Lewis Hamilton Is Confident Max Verstappen Will Win His Third Title In 2023
Red Bull wants to figure it out soon
Marko confirms that his side was not the only one who faced a similar issue. Everyone observed it, but apparently, Red Bull was the biggest victim. Therefore, his side is troubleshooting the issue at hand.
“We don’t know why, we still don’t understand it to this day. So we have to find out what happened there. It happened to other teams too, but it was massive for us. There was nothing, no upgrades or anything else, everything was still the same,” said Marko.
The former Austrian race driver added that the whole paradigm with the new tires is so fragile that anything off could have triggered. Nevertheless, he relies on his reliable army of engineers to locate the issue.
If Charles Leclerc hadn’t retired
Red Bull won the last race in a very dominant fashion. Fernando Alonso was the only non-Red Bull driver to be on the podium. Though, Sergio Perez Perez would disagree. And even Alonso had a 38-second gap against Verstappen.
When asked Marko if he could foresee his team winning in such a dominant fashion, he claimed he did, as their performances on Friday only hinted at that.
In the last race, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc saw an unprecedented technical issue in his car and had to retire. Marko believes that had Leclerc remained in the race; things could have been in the mix.
LAP 26/57
Perez sweeps past Leclerc at Turn 1
Red Bull are 1-2 #BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/WoW6BDrUiu
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 5, 2023
Nevertheless, going into Saudi Arabia, Red Bull is once again considered the favorite. However, Verstappen isn’t believing that and feels it would be more competitive in Jeddah to race.
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