Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko believes the Austrians will struggle to continue their winning streak this weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Ferrari looking like the team to beat.
With Free Practice 1 having been effectively cancelled due to CCTV issues, Free Practice 2 was extended to 90 minutes, due to the time lost in the opening session.
Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 in FP2, with Max Verstappen having only managed sixth.
Marko though, isn’t concerned about the Silver Arrows.
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The Austrian believes Mercedes set their best lap times when the Circuit de Gilles-Villeneuve was in a “better” state, whilst he also stated that the Germans had their engines turned up “to the max”.
“They drove their times much later than we did,” Marko told Servus TV.
“The track was much better then. They also revved up their engines to the max while we were busy with our race simulations.”
With Marko completely disregarding Mercedes as a threat, the 80-year-old sees Ferrari as Red Bull’s biggest competitor this weekend.
The advisor noted that Charles Leclerc’s pace was “particularly good”, with Marko having warned Red Bull to “watch out” for the Maranello-based team.
“Leclerc’s long run was particularly good,” Marko warned. “We have to watch out for them.
“We still have some work to do on the car.
“The race simulations look a bit better, but Leclerc was very fast and maybe even faster than we were.”
Should either Verstappen or Sergio Perez win this weekend, then it’d mark a century of victories for Red Bull.
If Red Bull want to claim their 100th win this weekend then they certainly need to “improve the car” ahead of the race, with Marko openly admitting that the Milton Keynes-based team are under “some extra pressure”.
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“We are all looking forward to our 100th victory, which may have added some extra pressure,” Marko admitted.
“At the moment it doesn’t look like that 100th win is possible here, but we still have one more practice to go and hopefully we can improve the car.
“But it was surprising that the handling of the car was a bit disappointing and given what we have already achieved, we have not lived up to our own expectations.”