Red Bull press on with 2020 upgrades
Dr Helmut Marko has rated Red Bull’s prospects of bringing the Honda engine operation in-house at “80-85%”.
Red Bull won’t stop developing its 2020 car with Helmut Marko saying they will benefit from it as “large parts” carry over into next season.
Earlier this week Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff revealed that the Brackley squad had stopped upgrading its W11 “a long time ago”.
According to the Austria, Mercedes has “decided to, like in the previous years, to switch to next year’s car and this is why you can see that shifting performance between the teams.”
That decision, he added, could see a rival team emerged as the “stronger” outfit in the latter part of the season.
Red Bull could be that team with Marko confirming that the Milton Keynes team has opted for a different approach.
“Next year’s car is not much different than this year,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.
“We are developing further because we can take over a large part into 2021.”
While we have seen the last of the Mercedes upgrades for 2020, Red Bull still has one more coming.
“There will still be an upgrade,” said Marko, “but we must first process the data from the Nürburgring.
“We are missing a complete training Friday for the analysis.”
Get your hands on the official Red Bull 2020 collection via the Formula 1 store
Red Bull has bagged just one race win so far this season with Max Verstappen taking the chequered flag at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
The Dutchman has, however, been one of the more consistent with seven podium finishes. His team-mate Alex Albon has just one, P3 at the Tuscan Grand Prix.
Red Bull is currently second in the Constructors’ Championship with 211 points, a massive 180 behind Mercedes.
The team is comfortably ahead of third placed Racing Point who have 120 points.
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