Imola upgrade is Red Bull's last chance – Tost

May 7 (GMM) Red Bull consultant Franz Tost warns that the world championship will effectively be “over” if the team’s Imola upgrade is not a big step forward.

Actually, amid rumours departing Alpine boss Oliver Oakes’ next move could be to Red Bull, Christian Horner denied the significance of the Imola upgrade that has regularly been spoken about by Dr Helmut Marko.

“There is no big update for Imola,” Horner said in Miami. “I don’t know where that’s come from.”

But former long-time Toro Rosso and Alpha Tauri (now Racing Bulls) team boss Tost, now retired but still a part-time Red Bull consultant, thinks the Imola upgrades are critical.

“It has to be right,” the Austrian told Sport1, “and that also applies to Ferrari and Mercedes. Otherwise, this world championship is over and McLaren will continue to dominate the rest of the season.

“Then, even an exceptional driver like Max Verstappen won’t be able to do anything.”

Horner, however, thinks Barcelona is an even more important date to mark in the diary – because it’s there that McLaren’s advantage with flexible wings should end.

“It will be a change,” he said. “How that will affect the different cars with the stiffening of the front wings? Who knows how that will play out.”

The very bad news for Red Bull in Miami, however, is that even with the introduction of a brand new floor design on Max Verstappen’s car, the laptime gap to the McLarens in the race was a huge seven tenths per lap.

“Our tyres are still overheating,” the quadruple world champion said when asked about the new floor. “The car still doesn’t make it easy for me. The balance is just not right.”

Team advisor Dr Helmut Marko admits the Miami floor was a disappointment.

“We expected more from it,” he said. “But it just wasn’t enough.”

Marko said Lando Norris’ recovery in the race “showed the true pace of the McLarens”.

“They were between seven tenths and one second faster per lap. That’s pretty depressing,” said the 82-year-old.