Helmut Marko believes there were “signs of nerves” in Charles Leclerc’s outing in Imola
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Leclerc and Marko
Helmut Marko the Red Bull team adviser has recently given an overview of the whole Imola Grand Prix and has suggested that Charles Leclerc was lucky just like Lewis Hamilton after avoiding damage to his F1-75 during his spin at Imola.
Charles Leclerc was chasing Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez during the race when in an attempt to close the gap to the front two runners the Monegasque got a bit too greedy and went over the kurbs that led to Leclerc’s almost race-ending spin.
Leclerc had all four wheels in the air after going over the kurbs but was lucky enough to get away from the incident with minute damage to the front wing of his car.
Because of the damage, Leclerc had to come into the pits, and from then onwards with nine laps to go was able to make up 2 places to land his car in sixth at the end of the race.
As the dust settled around the Imola track, Helmut Marko indicated that Leclerc drove a nervous race for Ferrari and while stressing the situation said, “[The nerves] were already there on Friday in practice when he spun – but lucky, like Hamilton, unbelievable.”
“He hits the ground and is able to continue. But that’s all right.”
Helmut Marko: Ferrari is strong, we must continue to work at full speed
The vastly experienced Helmut Marko after the race has indicated that the Red Bull team is pleased with the 1-2 finish at Imola and feels that their decision to add upgrades for Imola paid off “big time” for the team.
“The decisive factor was we had the courage to install our upgrade despite only one free practice session,” said Marko.
“Everything worked, which is why our aerodynamics specialist (Enrico Balbo) is on the podium.”
Helmut Marko has also talked about their prospects regarding the 2022 Championship and has said, “It was clear to us it [the title] was still open, but it’s very close.”
“Ferrari are very strong and we must therefore continue to work at full speed.”
“But we now have, above all, two very strong drivers. Perez is getting stronger, so from that point of view we are slightly optimistic about the future.”
Max Verstappen was also asked to give his opinion on the aerodynamics upgrade and downplayed it by saying “I think it’s difficult to say because we had changeable conditions all weekend.”
“It’s always difficult to say how much the upgrades will bring, but I think they worked well.”
“We had things under control a little better than in Australia. I’m just satisfied with how we performed all weekend. The fact we had everything under control is sometimes more important than the upgrades.“
Max Verstappen is pleased with the overall result at Imola as he believes they were in better control of the race as compared to the disappointing outing in Australia.
The upcoming Grand Prix is in Miami which is going to play host to Formula One for the first time and given the race is going to take place on a street circuit, it will be interesting to see how much of an impact the new upgrades are going to make for Red Bull.
Also Read: How long was Jules Bianchi in coma? What injuries did he suffer?
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)