Helmut Marko reveals ‘nothing worked’ for Red Bull during ‘incomprehensible’ Italian GP qualifying

Max Verstappen’s qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix was his worst of the season; the Red Bull driver will start seventh after simply struggling to find the speed for anything better.

Helmut Marko, head of Red Bull’s F1 operations, has revealed that ‘nothing worked’ for the team when it came to tweaking the car to find the pace necessary for, ideally, a front-row start at Monza .

Helmut Marko: Red Bull’s Italian GP quali pace was “incomprensible”

Speaking to Sky after Monza qualifying, Helmut Marko was asked to describe what happened to Max Verstappen, and what the team believes is wrong with the machinery.

According to the Austrian, Red Bull’s performance was “incomprehensible.”

“In Q2, I think we were within a few hundredths of second behind Hamilton, and then suddenly nothing worked in the third qualifying session,” he said.

“The changes were marginal. In theory, they couldn’t have accounted for that,” he added. “So we are puzzling.”

One of the big issues was the fact that Verstappen teammate Sergio Perez was actually setting faster laps on used tires than on fresh rubber.

“Something doesn’t add up at all,” Marko said. “Normally a used set of tires is three or four tenths slower.”

More reactions from the Italian Grand Prix:

👉 Winners and losers from the 2024 Italian Grand Prix qualifying

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a weakness from the once seemingly indestructible Red Bull Racing team. The 2024 season has revealed that the RB20 could start off quick, but the team has struggled to introduce mid-season upgrades that are capable of responding to the upgrades brought by teams like McLaren or Ferrari.

Making matters more frustrating is the fact that Sergio Perez has struggled overall, meaning the team is effectively relying on one driver — Verstappen — to lead its charge in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships.

Still, Marko doesn’t believe that all us lost. When asked if he still feels as if the team could win, he responded, “Definitely.

“We have to analyse, because the performance in Q2 was there, it was good. Thank God this is Monza, where you can overtake.”

The ability to overtake will be important; it means that a poor qualifying session doesn’t necessarily have to translate directly to poor race pace. If Red Bull can find a strategy that minimizes its struggles with its equipment, it may very well take the fight to McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari.

Marko added, “I don’t think anyone can pull away, not even the two McLarens, unless they do a great slipstreaming game and don’t fight each other. But all is not lost yet.

“But if we have the same lack of performance in the race, then it looks bad.”

That would be an understatement. If Red Bull can’t make up ground in Monza, it’s going to have to find a miracle to improve for the rest of the 2024 season.

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