Max Verstappen’s penalty hardly dampened the mood at Red Bull and Helmut Marko on Saturday: strong pace in the sprint – and an ace up their sleeve for a rainy race day
The rain put a damper on Formula 1 in Sao Paulo on Saturday – at least for qualifying, which was postponed several times and then finally canceled altogether and rescheduled for Sunday.
The weather forecast had warned in advance that it would be wet in Interlagos over the weekend. World Champion team Red Bull took this fact as an early opportunity to adjust the set-up, as motorsport consultant Helmut Marko revealed on ServusTV on Saturday:
“We were set up for more downforce, as you could see from how hard Max struggled to overtake because we lacked speed on the straights,” explains the Austrian with regard to the sprint: ”But we had already done that in view of the weather forecast, which was for rain tomorrow.”
Should it finally rain, Red Bull hopes to benefit from the rain in principle – however, Marko is also aware of the flash floods from Saturday: “Seen in this light, it’s the right thing to do, but in such conditions, everything is illusory anyway. And as difficult and unpredictable as the cars are at the moment, that doesn’t mean that our speed can be repeated in the rain.”
Red Bull sees itself on the upswing after sprint
Because the good speed in Saturday’s sprint surprised Marko himself: “I think you have to see it positively. We were the fastest car on the track for the first time in a long time,” Marko sums up the first part of the day satisfactorily.
With regard to Verstappen, the Austrian points out: “The circumstances… the start was not good, then he slightly missed the brake in the first corner, and then he was stuck behind Leclerc for too long.” Nevertheless, the Dutchman was able to put a lot of pressure on the two McLaren cars at the front during the final phase of the sprint.
Marko on penalty: “It doesn’t matter either way”
Another encouraging point for Marko: “We were still the fastest in terms of tire wear at the shot, as Checo proved with the fastest lap. That’s the encouraging thing.”
On the other hand, there is only the retrospective loss of Verstappen’s third place in the sprint due to a violation of the VSC rules: “The five-second penalty, well, at the moment it’s technically correct, it was a matter of a few tenths of a second,” comments Marko soberly, adding: “One point more or less doesn’t matter either way.”
44 points is Verstappen’s lead over championship rival Norris after Saturday in Sao Paulo. Incidentally, the McLaren driver is far less enthusiastic about the rain than the Red Bull camp: “We are very fast in the dry at the moment, so I would have preferred it to have stayed dry,” Norris explained immediately after the sprint.
