Red Bull takes “a risk” by introducing improvements to his RB18 this weekend at Imola.
The dominant team in 2022, Ferrari, has not made any serious changes this weekend to get the car properly tuned for the first sprint of the season due to track time constraints.
“It’s very clear. Ferrari has such a balanced package that it’s easy to adjust. With us, everything has to be perfect, so we can have a good balance.” says Mark.
“That’s exactly why we are now taking this risk to bring in new games with only one free session available. We want to push hard and take a chance instead of just waiting.”
“Ferrari and Leclerc are just too strong to stand by idly.”
Marko confirms that the 2022 Red Bull is currently on a diet “solid” to lose 10 kg pretty quickly and overtake Ferrari, and there will be good “good weight loss at Imola”†
“Losing weight is like people. It doesn’t happen overnight,” Marko smiled.
“You can lose quite a bit in the beginning and then it’s a long process. Because we are very overweight, much more than Ferrari.”
“Ferrari have come closer to the minimum weight limit. We think we are 10 kilos heavier than them, which is certainly three tenths. This gives us extra hope, because we will soon be three tenths heavier just with lighter parts.”
“If we arrive in Barcelona close to the level of Ferrari, we will be satisfied.”
The challenge for Red Bull is to find a way to reduce the weight of the RB18 without causing further problems.
“You can’t just build a chassis that is 10 kilos lighter. You have to scratch in all areas. Then there is the budget limit and you do not have to compromise on reliability.”
“Even though the rebound doesn’t look that brutal to us purely visually, the loads are huge. You have to find a middle ground, it doesn’t happen overnight.”
He is also not ruling out a return of Mercedes F1, which he says has a strong package despite the obvious rebound issues.
“That they are ahead of us in the championship with a car that is certainly not in the top three shows that.”
“At some point the problem will solve itself and the aerodynamics will work, but at the moment they are a second behind in qualifying and they are not a direct opponent for us. But that could change quite quickly. They will certainly be a lot more evolutions than we and Ferrari have this weekend.”
