Last Two Races Have Been ‘Unacceptable’ For Red Bull – Marko

Albon scored his first F1 podium at Mugello, but the team has failed to pick up any other points in the last two races.

The last two races – specifically, the Italian Grand Prix and the inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix – have been “unacceptable” for Red Bull, according to Helmut Marko.

Max Verstappen retired from both races with technical issues, while Alex Albon finished outside the points at Monza but bagged his first F1 podium a week later at Mugello.

READ: Keep An Eye On Charles Leclerc’s Future At Ferrari – Webber

Marko, who heads the team’s driver development programme, said Red Bull still want to win as many races as possible in 2020 despite Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton being out of reach in the Championship standings.

“We can’t change the car much because of the coronavirus [pandemic], but hopefully in 2022 the new rules will mark a new beginning for us. However, if we are so far behind, this will not happen.

“We still want to win every race, but this year’s Championship battle is over. The last couple of races have been unacceptable [for us],” he added.

Separately, Marko said that Honda has made progress on its power unit and has closed the gap to Mercedes, but there is still more work to be done.

“We need improvements immediately. At Honda, a couple of engineers were replaced, maybe that’s why these unexpected problems [on Verstappen’s car] came about.”

Honda, which supplies Red Bull Racing and its sister team, Scuderia AlphaTauri, is yet to extend its commitment to the sport beyond the end of the 2021 F1 season.

Article continues below

Marko said the Japanese car-maker is likely to make a decision on its future in early October.

He didn’t elaborate on who Red Bull would turn to for power units should Honda decide to exit the sport after 2021.

Before switching to Honda, Red Bull was a customer of Renault, but their relationship soured during the 2018 season and team principal Christian Horner decided it was time for a change.

With Mclaren ditching Renault for Mercedes power next year, the French manufacturer will only be supplying power units to its works team – which will be rebranded Alpine in 2021.

Subscribe to Formula1News.co.uk’s Google News feed for the latest F1 news

Enjoyed reading this article? Consider sharing it: