Christian Horner and Helmut Marko do not agree on the future of Red Bull

A few days ago, Helmut Marko, advisor at Red Bull, had expressed his concerns about the future of the team in Formula 1. He had highlighted the team’s difficulties in catching up to McLaren, which, according to him, is far ahead of them.

Pessimistic comments that did not please Christian Horner, team principal, who remains convinced that the situation will improve with the next modifications they will make.

Car.

A pessimistic vision

On the Helmut Marko side, motorsport advisor at Red Bull, the recent performances of the RB20 single-seater are particularly disappointing at this point in the season. He himself expressed their worrying delay compared to Lando Norris and his McLaren. Marko stated that the recent improvements made to the RB20 have not produced the expected results. He notably mentioned the issues of the car in slow corners, an area in which McLaren’s single-seaters are particularly effective. « We lose too much in slow corners, especially in sector 1 where we lose almost three tenths,” he declared to the media for the British Grand Prix. « Corrected, we are less competitive than in the first practice session. The long run was also not very convincing – still good, but not at Norris’ level, so we still have to correct some things,” he confided.

Helmut Marko’s comments reflect a certain frustration within the team regarding the current development of the RB20. According to him, the performance gains are insufficient to maintain the advantage of previous years, and he highlighted the need to focus more on certain specific technical improvements. For him, it is obvious that Red Bull is lagging behind in the progression of its car compared to other teams. An opinion that does not seem to be shared by the team principal.

Another point of view

Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, sought to alleviate concerns about a performance slowdown for the RB20. In a recent press conference, he emphasized that while recent improvements had not had the desired impact, it is important to consider the situation as a whole. Horner stated that the team is facing the consequences of reduced development time compared to its rivals. “It’s no secret that we have less development time than others. We are at the peak of the curve, so we are experiencing diminishing returns,” he explained to the media.

For Horner, the difficulties encountered during the British Grand Prix are not proof of a less competent team, as Max Verstappen has been able to score a lot of points in recent weeks. Mercedes was strong today, McLaren was strong last week, we won the previous week in Barcelona. I think that over this three-race stretch, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Max doesn’t score the most points, it was heard.

Regarding the time loss in slow corners and the difficulties at Silverstone, this illustrates the current technical challenges. However, Horner remains optimistic that Red Bull can bounce back and that other teams have simply better optimized their developments so far.

This difference of opinions between Horner and Marko could add difficulties to the team. Red Bull’s challenge will be to maintain its lead while managing development issues in the coming weeks.