Red Bull have ‘two or three’ problems, reliability is just one

Helmut Marko says reliability is just one problem facing Red Bull at present – their RB18 is also lagging behind the Ferrari and is too heavy.

For the second time in three races Max Verstappen recorded a DNF, the reigning World Champion retiring from the Australian Grand Prix while running second.

It was a disappointing outcome, the Dutchman having lost 36 points as he was also P2 in Bahrain when he retired.

He has two DNFs to his name while his team-mate Sergio Perez has one, the Mexican driver also unable to finish in Bahrain.

But while that is a pressing concern for Red Bull, it is not the only issue the team are facing as their RB18 was unable to stick with the Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari around the Albert Park street circuit.

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And aside from lacking in pace, it was also chewing up the tyres a lot faster than the Ferrari.

LAP 39/59

Max Verstappen is OUT of the race!!!

He's had to retire the car after being asked by his engineer to stop at Turn 2#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/hLz41lNaLf

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 10, 2022

“There are two or maybe three different things at play,” Marko told Servus TV.

“Firstly, the reliability problems, which we hardly had last year, but the lag behind Ferrari was also alarming today.

“They just controlled the pace and did that without graining. If Max stepped on, Leclerc could react easily.”

He added: “We were negatively surprised by the speed of Ferrari. They had almost no graining and we already had after a few laps.

“Ferrari can find a good balance with the car more easily.”

And then,