Helmut Marko identifies clear Red Bull weakness at Silverstone in Lando Norris admission

Helmut Marko has admitted Red Bull are “losing too much” in the slow corners at Silverstone, with the RB20 “not at the level” of McLaren driver Lando Norris in British Grand Prix practice.

Norris topped both practice sessions on the opening day of action at Silverstone, leading a McLaren one-two with a 0.331-second advantage over team-mate Oscar Piastri in FP2.

Helmut Marko: Red Bull ‘behind’ Lando Norris at British GP

Although Sergio Perez was classified third in the second session, having set his quickest lap slightly later than his competitors, Red Bull endured a difficult day as Max Verstappen could only manage fourth and seventh in FP1 and FP2 respectively.

Verstappen had to abort one of his flying laps in FP2 after a snap saw him briefly run off the track at the high-speed Maggotts/Becketts/Chapel section of the Silverstone course.

Speaking to Austrian outlet ORF after FP2, Marko admitted Norris are “behind Norris” as things stand after a difficult session “for several reasons.”

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And he pointed to the slow-speed turns of the first sector as a clear area of weakness for the RB20, with Red Bull losing 0.3s to Norris in that section alone.

He said: “We lose too much in the slow curves, especially in sector 1 [where] we lose almost three tenths.

“[Fuel and tyre] corrected, we are worse than in the first practice.

“The long run was also not so confident – still good, but also not at the level of Norris, so we still have to correct a few things here.”

Marko added that Red Bull now face a challenge to “find a right balance” between retaining their performance in the first corners while working out ways to bring the car up to standard in the slow sections.

He said: “It will now become clear whether we find a right balance, that we maintain our performance in the fast curves without losing so much in the slow ones.”

Red Bull’s high-speed performance was a noticeable strength at last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, where Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton told media including PlanetF1.com that Verstappen held an “insane” advantage – thought to be in the region of 12-13kph – over the opposition.

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