{"id":21155,"date":"2014-03-04T06:41:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T11:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=21155"},"modified":"2014-03-04T06:41:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T11:41:52","slug":"marko-not-sure-red-bull-can-catch-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/marko-not-sure-red-bull-can-catch-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Marko not sure Red Bull can catch up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Helmut Marko is not sure Red Bull will catch up its early-season deficit in 2014, after a disastrous start to its latest title defence.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-left alignleft\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px;\" alt=\"Dr-Helmut-Marko-2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2013-rif-images\/f1-2013-persons\/Dr-Helmut-Marko-2.jpg\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\" \/>Speaking to Red Bull&#8217;s in-house Servus TV network, the always-blunt Austrian admitted the reigning world champion team is months behind its rivals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The season opener is coming at least two months too early for us,&#8221; Marko said on the Sport und Talk programme.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are not where we should be.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the biggest problem is that in the 12 days of pre-Melbourne testing in Spain and Bahrain, Red Bull turned significantly fewer laps than any other traditional rival.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a very, very serious thing,&#8221; said Marko.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the moment we do not know what (time) period we will need to catch up, or whether we will at all,&#8221; he admitted.<\/p>\n<p>However, it may not be all bad for Red Bull, as even pacesetters Mercedes are expecting reliability &#8211; not speed &#8211; to be perhaps the most important factor next weekend in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I believe that half the field will not finish,&#8221; said team chairman Niki Lauda, &#8220;simply because there has not been the opportunity for enough testing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But, unfortunately for Red Bull, the Renault-powered RB10 is not just unreliable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Red Bull does not look good,&#8221; an experienced source, trackside in Bahrain last week, was quoted by Germany&#8217;s Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nothing seemed right &#8212; the coordination of engine, gears and setup did not fit together.\u00a0 Sebastian (Vettel) was always sliding and spinning his wheels, while the Williams was like on rails,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The car is also significantly slower in a straight line than its Ferrari and Mercedes-powered rivals, and Renault is taking some of the blame for that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Melbourne will be an anxious weekend,&#8221; admitted technical boss Rob White.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope we can support our teams and drivers to explore the performance of the car and allow the race to deliver its sporting verdict.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Helmut Marko is not sure Red Bull will catch up its early-season deficit in 2014, after a disastrous start to its latest title defence. Speaking to Red Bull&#8217;s in-house Servus TV network, the always-blunt Austrian admitted the reigning world champion team is months behind its rivals. &#8220;The season opener is coming at least two &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[2120,3],"tags":[1628,5262,5340,129,164],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21156,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21155\/revisions\/21156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}