Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko has admitted for the first time that his team has problems that run deeper than the Renault engine, and in fact are related to the chassis.
A furious row between Red Bull and Renault erupted in and after Australia, with Cyril Abiteboul even accusing Adrian Newey of telling lies. The main lie, according to the Frenchman, was that Renault was solely to blame for Red Bull's struggles in 2015.
After Malaysia, where Red Bull admitted Renault made progress, team official Marko now admits that Milton-Keynes also has work to do.
The result of Sepang was unfortunate for Red Bull Racing," he told the Austrian broadcaster Servus TV, "but it does not hurt because there is the need to wake up in England. There are some things in the chassis that do not work optimally."
One of them in Malaysia was the brakes, with Red Bull having switched suppliers at the end of last year to a brand not liked by departing driver Sebastian Vettel. Marko announced that Red Bull will now reverse that decision.
For Daniil Kvyat, the fact Red Bull's problems run deeper than Renault is starkly obvious, having stepped up from the junior team Toro Rosso over the winter.
But in Malaysia, the young Russian finished behind both of his Toro Rosso successors, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.
"General pace is not there at the moment," Kvyat admitted. "This is not a good situation."
And compounding the misery for teammate Daniel Ricciardo in Malaysia was the fact that the man he roundly defeated in 2014, now Ferrari driver Vettel, won the race.
Not only that, Ricciardo was lapped by the red car, "I'm happy for him and that he has done what I think a lot of people thought he couldn't do. But it emphasises the frustration for us."
Latest News
Loading
