Helmut Marko reveals root of Max Verstappen sprint qualifying woes
Max Verstappen's bouncing woes in SQ3 were caused by the soft tyres, according to Helmut Marko.
Helmut Marko has opened up on why Max Verstappen struggled for pace in Sprint Qualifying in Qatar.
Verstappen will line up in sixth place for Saturday’s Sprint race, having complained about excessive bouncing from his RB21 during the SQ3 session.
Helmut Marko: Max Verstappen’s problems were on the soft tyre
Having been fastest of all in SQ1 on the hard tyre, and third fastest and less than a tenth off on the medium tyre compound in SQ2, title hopeful Max Verstappen could only manage sixth-fastest in the crucial SQ3 stage of the session.
This places him behind championship rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, first and third respectively, with plenty of work to do if he’s to prevent his 24-point deficit from increasing in Saturday’s Sprint race.
During the session, Verstappen could be heard vigorously complaining about his car bouncing around the Losail Circuit, with his struggles including him running wide and off the track during his first run in SQ3.
As for what caused the dramatic drop-off in competitiveness in that session, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko pointed to the C3 compound as being the primary culprit.
“It’s the soft tyre,” he summed up to media, including PlanetF1.com, after the chequered flag.
“On the medium tyre, we were competitive, similar to P1 on the hard tyre, we were also competitive.
“The changes we did obviously didn’t cure our problem on the soft tyre, they were better on Yuki’s car.”
With Yuki Tsunoda outqualifying Verstappen for the first time as Red Bull teammates, Marko confirmed Tsunoda had not encountered the same problem on the soft compound and said, “Yuki gained a tenth in the first corner.
“I mean, the changes mainly… Max wanted more front end, Yuki more rear end and that was a better solution.
“But fortunately, it’s only the Sprint, and, for tomorrow, we have to sort out our weakness on the soft tyre.”
The Austrian explained that ride heights couldn’t have played a factor in this bouncing phenomenon, as the issue simply wasn’t there on the harder C1 and C2 compounds.
“We didn’t have bouncing on the medium tyre, the ride height stayed the same for both tyres, of course,” he said.
“So we have to find the reason why it happened.”
With the Sprint race highly unlikely to see the drivers use the soft tyre compound, Marko said there is hope of being more competitive over the longer race distance, but the characteristics of the Losail Circuit won’t help Verstappen’s quest for recovery.
“I think we will be more competitive, but overtaking is really difficult,” he said.
One positive to take from the result is that Norris was bested by Piastri as the Australian’s own quest for the title showed the first spark of inspiration from him in several race weekends.
The fact that it was Piastri, level on points with Verstappen, who came out on top is a small consolation for Marko.
“I think the field is so close together and they are so different. It’s Mercedes, it’s [Fernando] Alonso [in P4] still.
“So I think a lot can happen.”
As for whether the soft tyre problem is fixable when parc ferme conditions lift after the Sprint for the main qualifying session, Marko said, “We hope we can solve it.”
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