Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said that the upgrades introduced at pre-season testing in Bahrain are worth more than half a second.
Red Bull didn’t have the strongest pre-season test on paper leading up to the final day. While they didn’t particularly struggle, neither Max Verstappen, nor Sergio Perez could keep their RB18 towards the top of the timing charts consistently.
That was before day three of the Bahrain testing. Ahead of the final day, Marko revealed that they had a new aer0-upgrade coming in. This was expected to help the Austrian team with their understeering problems around slow corners.
Before Verstappen set out for his stint, fans caught a glimpse of the RB18 and it looked different to what it did on previous days. At the end of the session, the 2021 World Champion finished on top with a time of 1.31.720.
He finished of Haas’ Mick Schumacher and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Lap times during pre-season aren’t a definite indicator of what’s to come, but Verstappen insists that the Milton-Keynes outfit have still not shown their true pace.
Marko added to it by suggesting that the aero-upgrades have made the car faster by more than half a second. “The upgrade has given us more than half a second,” Marko said to AMuS.
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Mercedes feel Red Bull and Ferrari are a step ahead of the others
A Mercedes engineer spoke to AMuS earlier this week about their team’s problems. He insists that they’re not bluffing about their porpoising issues, and that they’re a step behind their rivals.
In particular, the Silver Arrows remain wary of Ferrari and Red Bull’s progress. The former is a team that everyone in the paddock will be watching out for. They’ve made some major gains, and looked strong throughout both tests.
“Red Bull ahead of Ferrari, we are half a second behind by our reckoning,” said the Mercedes engineer.
“We are up and down with the ground clearance, but the car jumps like a billy goat. We’re not bluffing (about our issues). “The porpoising issues are real. And they’re keeping us from understanding and developing the car at the moment.”
In terms of raw pace, not many people feel that Ferrari have the fastest car. However, reliability remains a major concern as F1 enters a new era. In terms of durability, the Italian team is expected to outperform it’s rivals in the first few races of the season at least.
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