“The most important thing is the long run,” Helmut Marko ‘not worried’ after seeing half a second gap between Red Bull and Ferrari

“The most important thing is the long run,” Helmut Marko ‘not worried’ after seeing half a second gap between Red Bull and Ferrari

Red Bull Racing's RB18

Helmut Marko the Red Bull team adviser after the end of today’s Practice sessions has agreed with Christain Horner’s assessment of Red Bull not being too far behind Ferrari.

The outing of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen has instilled hope in the Austrian and ahead of the French Grand Prix, Marko is confident about his drivers bringing the victory home for the Milton-Keynes-based outfit.

At the end of Free Practice 2, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was on top with a time of 1:32:527 whereas Max Verstappen was able to secure the third spot with a time that was half a second more than the Spaniard’s time.

In Formula One terms half a second is a huge margin but despite that Helmut Marko is not worried and believes that the margin is not as big as everyone is making it to be. Moreover, has stressed that Red Bull’s long-run pace is looking in decent shape for the Grand Prix.

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Helmut Marko states that the RB18’s floor was reinforced for FP2

Helmut Marko
Helmut Marko

While stressing about it, Marko said, “The most important thing is the long run, and it was promising for us.” During FP2, the RB18 spent more time in the garage as compared to on track and Marko has revealed that they had to reinforce the floors because of the damage they incurred during FP1.

The conditions at Paul Ricard are hot and humid and as things stand, the tire degradation is going to be a major issue for all the teams on Sunday and it could possibly make or break their race.

The medium tires have struggled under the hot conditions at Paul Ricard and after Friday’s practice, it is believed that the race is going to involve a two-stop strategy.

Given that tire degradation could be a major issue during the race, Red Bull struggled with the same in Austria and it will be interesting to see how they will cope with the problem this time.

Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen

According to you, how much of a factor is tire management going to be during the upcoming weekend?

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