Starting from fourth on the grid for the Brazilian Sprint, Helmut Marko thinks it will be “impossible” for Max Verstappen to compete with the McLarens, who are on the front row.
Oscar Piastri took pole position for the Sprint, beating teammate Lando Norris to lead a McLaren 1-2, while Verstappen is in fourth and Sergio Perez is down in 13th.
Marko feels that Red Bull cannot keep up with McLaren in the Sprint. McLaren had a stronger performance throughout Friday, with Norris leading in practice and then securing first place in both SQ1 and SQ2.
In SQ3, it was Piastri who came out on top, with McLaren showing strong speed in the middle sector thanks to their new rear wing. Piastri finished just 0.029 seconds ahead of Norris, while Charles Leclerc took third. Verstappen, in fourth, was more than three-tenths slower than the leading McLaren.
Marko explained that Red Bull is losing too much time in the medium-speed corners, Descida do Lago and Pinheirinho, making it “impossible” to challenge McLaren for the win.
“We are too slow,” Marko told Sky Deutschland. “In Turn Four and Nine we lose way too much to McLaren.
“There are several issues, and the uneven track doesn’t help when the car hits the curbs too much. Then the car starts bouncing. “I think it will be very difficult, or impossible, to keep up with McLaren.
“Charles Leclerc and Ferrari seem like they are within reach for the Sprint race, but the gap is still quite large given the short lap.”
Max Verstappen is concerned about the large time gap he faces for Saturday’s Sprint.
“It’s extremely bumpy everywhere, so that’s not good for our car. In all the bumpy areas, the car is jumping around a lot, and it’s costing me quite a bit of time, unfortunately,” he said to F1TV.
“Normally, when you’re already behind over one lap, I don’t think we are particularly strong in the race, so we’ll have to see how that goes tomorrow in the Sprint.”
Verstappen is 47 points ahead of Lando Norris with four races remaining, and there are eight points available in the Sprint.
As for Sergio Perez, he will start in 13th place after he couldn’t finish a second flying lap in SQ2.
Marko explained: “The original plan was to do only one lap. Unfortunately, it turned out too late that this lap was not enough.”
Even though Red Bull changed Perez’s chassis after his poor performance in Mexico, the 34-year-old was still half a second slower than Verstappen in SQ2, where Verstappen also only completed one flying lap.
“We had a good FP1, but then we had a bit of understeer as the track temperature dropped,” he said.
“We tried to manage it with the brake balance and the tools available, but I ended up a bit too rear-limited.
“And then it was a bit confusing with the program. We thought we might have a chance for a second lap, but unfortunately, we didn’t.
“Today we struggled quite a bit. We got caught out by the conditions, unfortunately, and that was really the hard part.”
