Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has accepted defeat on their pole and victory hopes at the Australian Grand Prix.
However, with the rain forecast to arrive on Sunday, Marko’s last hope is that the “Max factor” will make its mark once again.
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F1 2025 is officially underway with Friday practice ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in the books.
And the timing screen made happy reading for Ferrari and McLaren, Charles Leclerc topping FP2 with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris both within a tenth-and-a-half to put both McLarens in the top three.
As for Red Bull, Verstappen managed P5 only in FP1, dropping to P7 after the second hour of practice and six-tenths off Leclerc’s pace.
After FP1, Marko was still positive, predicting to ORF that “all four teams, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and ourselves, are very close”, adding that Verstappen’s deficit was “not representative”.
However, by the end of the day’s running, Marko was feeling a lot less optimistic over Red Bull’s pace in Melbourne.
“The first practice was better,” Marko admitted to Sky Germany.
“What we made in terms of changes was not promising.”
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As a result, Marko believes the “maximum” Red Bull can now hope to achieve is a “second row” start at Albert Park and a podium and, with the RB21 moving “between understeer and oversteer”, Marko pointed out “of course that also goes on the tyres during the long run”, far from ideal in a race situation.
“It seems that McLaren is the strongest team, and then it gets tight between Ferrari, Mercedes and us,” Marko added.
However, the long run performance could look very different by Sunday, as rather than a dry track, a rainy scene is set to greet the drivers for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
It is well known by this point just how strong Verstappen can be in the wet, his iconic drive to victory at a rain-soaked Brazilian GP last year a reminder of that, a win which effectively secured the Dutchman his fourth straight World Championship.
“I heard it’s supposed to rain,” Marko acknowledged. “And then, of course, the Max factor is back…”
As for Verstappen’s new Red Bull team-mate Liam Lawson, he was P17 only in FP2 after an opening practice session which saw him clip the wall at Turn 9, Marko explaining the implications of that for his RB21.
“He drove quite hard over the kerbs and the floor was damaged,” Marko confirmed.
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