'We are facing difficult times' - Red Bull has other car issues, says Marko

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admits they have other issues besides reliability and are struggling with the weight of the RB18 plus a lack of performance compared to that of Ferrari.

In the first race of the 2022 season in Bahrain, both Red Bull cars retired with fuel pump issues, then in Saudi Arabia, Max Verstappen bounced back and won the race. This past weekend in Australia, Verstappen was forced to retire with a fuel issue after being in second place behind race winner Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.In an interview with Servus TV, Marko spoke about the issues going on at Red Bull which were not only reliability-related.

A hugely frustrating Sunday for the reigning champ ??#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Ra3CRJqpro

"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 deficit to Ferrari was also alarming on Sunday (in Australia).

"They just controlled the pace; if Max upped the pace, Leclerc could react easily.

"We were negatively surprised by the speed of Ferrari. After a few laps, they had almost no graining, and we already had some.

"Ferrari can find a good balance with their car more easily."

Marko added that the RB18's excess weight impacted the cars' performance.

Heartbreak for Max Verstappen in Australia ??An podium opportunity missed for the Dutchman after a strong showing ended prematurely with a car problem ??#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/DXeOAe1r4X

"We are clearly heavier than the Ferrari," Marko said. "I think we have a weight handicap of about 10 kilograms.

"Converted to lap time, that equates to about three tenths per lap."

The big problem facing Red Bull when dealing with the weight issue is that they will need to do an