Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was not pleased with Lando Norris‘s long runs on Friday in Mexico. The Austrian fears that the McLaren driver could pull away from Max Verstappen during the race, unless Red Bull finds a solution for the challenging Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. However, Marko remains confident, as his team has previously managed to turn the tide from Friday to Saturday.
Max Verstappen, after an hour on the sidelines on Friday, was the fastest man on the track in the second free practice. However, the Dutchman expressed concerns about the long runs afterwards. Advisor Helmut Marko agrees with the four-time world champion, as he explains. “We are competitive over one lap, but much less so in the long runs,” the Austrian tells Motorsport.com. “Especially on the mediums, we lose a lot of ground. Compared to Norris, it’s very tough. Fortunately, not so much compared to Oscar Piastri, who is still struggling. We need to solve that, although the good news is that Yuki (Tsunoda, ed.) was closer today and he also provided useful technical feedback.”
According to Marko, Max Verstappen indicated after the session that it felt like ‘driving on ice’ during the longer runs. “We need to find something, otherwise it will be very difficult against Lando Norris, and even against Ferrari and Mercedes,” the advisor clearly states. “If you look at Norris in the long runs, he just drives away. If it stays like this, he’s gone.” Yet, Marko remains confident. After all, Red Bull has been able to turn the tide from Friday to Saturday during a Grand Prix weekend several times this year.
‘Piastri less competitive than Norris’
In addition, Marko sees a silver lining for Verstappen in the championship. “The positive thing is that Norris seems to be much more competitive than Piastri,” the Austrian asserts. “It’s always a long race here, so let’s see what’s possible. I think we can still significantly improve the set-up.” The Australian currently has a forty World Championship points lead over Verstappen, while the gap to Norris is 26 points.
