According to Dr. Helmut Marko, Max Verstappen had issues getting his tires up to temperature during sprint qualifying in the rain. At Red Bull, there is no immediate explanation for this problem.
“It was crucial to get the temperature in the tires,” Helmut Marko told ‘Servus TV’ reflecting on the sprint qualifying. “The best example is Hamilton who was sliding hopelessly on his first attempt, then he changed the tires, probably with higher tire pressure, and suddenly he was competitive. We had almost identical tire pressure on both cars.”
“Apart from that, Checo was constantly improving, he was also competitive, he could have been at the front without slipping. But Max just couldn’t get the temperature in the tires, we don’t know why.”
“No decisive races involving rubber deposits were organized on the circuit for five years. It’s all a combination of that.”
“However, it remains inexplicable why in one car the temperature rises as it should, while in Max’s case almost the opposite happened, the temperature almost dropped.”
After the only practice session and prior to sprint qualifying, problems were discovered on Max Verstappen’s F1 car but they were reportedly resolved by sprint qualifying.
“During the dry session we were at the front,” said Marko. “We found errors on Max’s car, we changed some small details and they had a positive effect.”
“We are therefore optimistic that if qualifying takes place in the rain on Saturday, we will find a reason why we did not get the temperature right.”