Marko explains reliability issues: "One thing leads to the next"
Published on 02 May 2017 by Stefan Meens
Red Bull Racing endured a tough start to its 2017 Formula 1 campaign. With just one podium and three DNFs, the Milton Keynes based team is under performing. In the last Grand Prix, in Russia, the team suffered problems; Max Verstappen’s car suffered two water pump failures whereas Daniel Ricciardo could not finish the race due to overheating brakes. Remarkably, Max made it to the end of the race to secure a fifth place.
Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing’s chief advisor analysed to problems when speaking to Auto Motor und Sport. “When everything goes wrong, the problems become relative. Toro Rosso have the same issue. The water leaks were sealed one way or the other. In the end, Max finished fifth, which, considering the circumstances, was a good result. We couldn’t finish higher. Max had once again a super start and showed good speed. The track doesn’t suit us so we can be satisfied.”
The lack of power and reliability are connected according to Marko. “One thing leads to the next. The brake issues happen because we have to really be on the limit to generate enough heat into the rear tyres via the rims. After the restart, the heat sensor on Ricciardo’s car failed. So the brakes overheated without us knowing, otherwise we would’ve asked him to change the brake bias to front. That’s what we asked Max to do. To let let Ricciardo continue, would have been to dangerous. For him it was too late. It was principally the same issue that caused Max’ DNF is Bahrain.”
For the Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull are introducing several upgrades. “I knew the figures prior to the season, now I want to them on the stopwatch in Barcelona. But if Renault don’t sort the reliability, we can’t develop. It obstructs us.”
The suggestion that there is a difference between the engines used by the factory team and Red Bull is strongly denied by Marko. “They use different fuel, but Renault have assured us there are no differences. The hardware is the same. It’s impossible to build two different engines. Because Hulkenberg is so close to us in qualifying, people might think there is a difference. But Hulkenberg is very strong in qualifying. In a flying lap with a car with downforce like ours, you can put in a good result.”
The Russian Grand Prix stood out because of the lack of overtaking. Marko explains: “The DRS wasn’t strong enough if there was a car in front with a stronger engine. If Mercedes use their ‘super power’ mode, not even Ferrari can match them. You could see at the start how they pulled away. In addition, the cars are very sensitive aerodynamically. Unfortunately, the slipstream pull was too little. They have figure out how to solve this at the next regulation change. We could look at how Indycar do things. It works well for them."
