Helmut Marko pinpoints Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull disadvantage over Max Verstappen

Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko has pinpointed Yuki Tsunoda’s struggles with adapting to changing conditions in the RB21 as his disadvantage over team-mate Max Verstappen.

Tsunoda will start the Austrian Grand Prix from 18th while his four-time champion team-mate will start in seventh.

Reflecting on the qualifying session, Marko explained that the RB21 has such a “narrow working window,” which makes it drive like a “tightrope walk between going off and just barely keeping it together.”

“With his first set, he was still somewhat within range,” Marko told ORF in discussion about Tsunoda’s qualifying performance. “That would’ve even been enough for Q3. But with the changing conditions, Yuki just has a much harder time adapting. Max can drive over that.

“But the main problem is that our car has too narrow a working window, and is also extremely edgy at the limit. You could see that clearly. When McLaren slides, the car corrects itself easily. With us, it’s always a tightrope walk between going off and just barely keeping it together.”

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team 

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Tsunoda vented his frustrations after qualifying, claiming he is “not even in the level that I was doing in the VCARB.”

“Not able to adjust properly with the things in the second push,” he explained. “First push felt good, and yeah, the second push. I mean, obviously, there’s always perfect laps. So, you know, there’s something that I could have done better. But, yeah, also, that balance felt completely different between first push and second push. That caught a bit of a surprise.”

A seventh-place start is also not where Verstappen would like to be. Marko argued that if there had not been the brief yellow flag caused by Pierre Gasly’s spin, the Dutchman could have been in P3 for the race at the Red Bull Ring tomorrow. 

“The conditions were very different compared to FP3,” Marko added. “Everyone had problems—except McLaren. And seventh place, I mean, that’s only because of the yellow flag… According to our data, Max would’ve been around third place, but still a good half a second behind Norris. That’s a really big gap we’re getting here on such a short track.”

Photos from Austrian GP –  Practice and Qualifying