Red Bull pinning hopes on early car upgrade

Mar.24 (GMM) Red Bull is pinning its hopes on an early upgrade for its troublesome 2025 car.

As Liam Lawson struggles to find any pace from the RB21 whatsoever, even Max Verstappen could not make the podium in Shanghai on Sunday.

“It is clear that we have a technical deficit,” team advisor Dr Helmut Marko admitted to Servus TV, revealing that a key meeting will take place at Milton-Keynes this week.

“We will discuss how we can have a car that can fight for the win again and how long we need for that.”

The early rumour is that Red Bull will make the most of the upcoming free weekend to fast-forward updates planned for a little later – given that the next three grands prix take place back-to-back.

“Of course we have something in the pipeline,” Marko admits, “but it also depends on how the different components work together and especially whether they work.

“If they work, we can quickly be successful again, but that remains to be seen. Until then, it’s about scoring as many points as possible.”

Verstappen trails Lando Norris by 8 points after the opening two rounds of the season, but Lawson’s situation prompted McLaren CEO Zak Brown to effectively write Red Bull out of contention for the constructors’ title.

“We’re worried, but we’re not giving up,” Marko said.

In fact, Verstappen was reasonably upbeat after finishing fourth on Sunday, pointing the finger at the team’s race strategy. “In the first stint I drove as the team wanted me to for the management of the tyres,” he told Dutch journalists.

“I said beforehand that we would be too slow, which proved to be right. In any case, I did what they wanted.”

When asked about Marko’s admission that Red Bull is “worried”, the quadruple world champion continued: “It’s not just that we have to worry, we just have to get to work.

“We know that we are not as strong as other teams at the moment, so we have to work on that,” Verstappen added.