After leaving one of the best feelings during the pre-season tests and also in the first free practice sessions of the season, Red Bull had earned the role of favorites alongside Ferrari for 2022 and they confirmed it in the standings.
However, with only a few laps to go in the race, a similar problem in the cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez left the energy drink team with a very bitter taste in their mouths as their two drivers were forced to leave .
At that time, Verstappen was second and Pérez fourth, with Charles Leclerc ahead of the Dutch driver and Carlos Sainz holding back the Mexican, a result that was already considered good in Red Bull , but that ended in a double for Ferrari and the first 0 of the course for the Austrians.
Visibly angry with the situation, Helmut Marko , Red Bull’s main adviser, spoke about the breakdown that ruined his drivers’ races and explained that neither Honda nor themselves were to blame for the problem, since the origin came from a part that none of them make.
“We think there are problems with the fuel pump in both cars. They all suffered from that during the pre-season. But the fuel pump is not produced by us, we just have to take it and mount it. And we have never had this problem before, that’s what weird”.
“The Pierre Gasly thing was an electrical problem, so that’s a very different problem,” he said in reference to the breakdown that left the AlphaTauri rider out of the race after a fire in his AT03.
“Of course we are worried about it, but we are convinced that we can fix it before Jeddah. Hopefully we will be in a better position there,” Marko added.
About Ferrari’s dominance throughout the race, the Red Bull driver was calm, since he thinks that if everything had gone normally, Verstappen would have been the driver who would have set the pace.
“We were surprised by the speed of the Ferrari . But I still think that if we had been in front, everything would have been much easier. Max was told to hold off for a few laps… If he had driven at his normal pace, he would have been in front of Leclerc “.
“Our tire degradation was unbelievably higher than Ferrari’s and their engine power was also very impressive. But still, if Max had been in front of Leclerc, I think the story would have been different.”
The second race of the season will take place next weekend at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, just seven days into this first round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, so all the teams will have very little room to work on improvements. and troubleshoot.
