Marko praises ‘brave’ Red Bull Imola upgrade

Henry Valantine
Sergio Perez, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, Red Bull. Imola April 2022.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko celebrate a one-two finish. Imola April 2022.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has hailed the team’s bravery in using new upgrades for their one-two finish at Imola.

Several teams brought and tested upgrades at the first European race of the season, but the poor weather forecast and limited running opportunities reportedly put Ferrari off fitting an updated floor at Imola.

Red Bull, meanwhile, put full faith in what they took with them, despite only having an hour of practice running before the cars entered parc fermé conditions – which meant they could not be worked on for the rest of the weekend.

And their pace relative to Ferrari was strong all weekend, with Max Verstappen able to streak away in the lead at Imola with his team-mate Sergio Perez holding second place comfortably after making his way past Charles Leclerc.

Both Red Bull drivers held on to their positions until the end and took the team’s first one-two finish since 2016, and their senior motorsport advisor heaped praise on how the team had gone about getting their car in the best place it could be.

“It was funny, I told Perez before the start ‘we have to have a one-two so we can catch up’ and afterwards he said ‘you asked, so we did it!,’” Marko told SpeedCity Broadcasting, quoted by RACER.

“So if it’s as easy as that we will tell them more often!

“It’s very satisfying, and after the problems we had in Melbourne and at the first race, we showed we have the potential and the speed to react.

“We were brave — we brought an update and with the sprint format you just have one session to adjust.

“That session was partly wet, so it was even more difficult, but we believe and we trust in our aerodynamics — that’s why our chief of aerodynamics (Enrico Balbo) was on the podium — and it proved to be right.

 

“Max is a driver who attacks and we are also, I wouldn’t say aggressive, but we are not sitting on our backsides and waiting. If something is coming, we go for it and we work for it.”

Verstappen closed the gap to Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship with his victory last time out, while Red Bull are now just 11 points behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings heading into the next round in at Miami.