Helmut Marko’s warning as Red Bull’s biggest threat in Hungary is revealed

Helmut Marko has warned McLaren their quarter-of-a-second advantage in practice could easily be erased in qualifying when Red Bull turn the engines up.

Lando Norris set the pace at the Hungaroring on Friday where the Briton was 0.243s faster than Max Verstappen, who was driving the upgraded RB20.

Red Bull upgraded the RB20 as they look to hold off McLaren

Fast-tracking a substantial update for the Hungarian Grand Prix , the revised RB20 featured a new engine cover and re-sculpted sidepods as well as other new parts.

Verstappen’s RB20 featured all five upgrades while Marko confirmed Sergio Perez’s car was missing the new engine cover, with the Mexican driver two-tenths down in FP2.

“The conclusion is that the updates work,” the Red Bull motorsport advisor told Motorsport.com .

“Checo actually has the same upgrade, except for one part. Only that part is the most noticeable. That’s why people think that Checo doesn’t have the upgrades, but he does have the vast majority.

“The difference in performance between the two cars is only marginal.”

But while Verstappen called the upgrade crucial as he looks to maintain his advantage in the Drivers’ Championship having only won two of the last five races, Marko laughed that off.

“We are 84 points ahead!” he said. “Only we all know how Max is, he always wants the maximum and the best. But it is good to know that we can now rely on our own strength again.

“We did not win the last few races and the main problem was that we could not find the right balance straight away. We were not fast on all tyre compounds and not in all conditions.

“At McLaren that seemed to be the case regardless of the weather and regardless of the circuit. Of course it was extremely hot today, but we were good in every session.”

Crunching the data from Friday’s running in Hungary

👉 McLaren vs Red Bull to resume? Five data clues from Hungarian GP practice

👉 Hungarian GP: Lando Norris tops red flag-interrupted FP2 after big Charles Leclerc crash

It’s McLaren who Marko believes will be Red Bull’s challenger as the teams prepare for Saturday’s qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

He warned the Woking team that while they had the advantage on Friday when the drivers swapped to the soft tyres for their qualifying simulations, Red Bull did not turn their engines up for that.

“If I take the long runs, then I think it’s between McLaren and us,” he told Sky Deutschland .

“We’re not completely happy with the balance yet [on short runs], but if we take the long runs, we were absolutely up there with the front.

“And we didn’t drive at full power, so it looks good.”

As for Mercedes, who won the last two Grands Prix, the Austrian believes another sweltering forecast which could see the track temperature rise into the 50s could scupper their chances.

“If the racing conditions are normal,” Marko said, adding: “If it’s not a green track and the temperatures are not low, then their strengths are reduced.”

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