According to Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko, McLaren showed their “real speed” for the first time at the Miami Grand Prix.

And the result was “depressing” for Red Bull, as Marko claims they are now looking at a 0.7s deficit per lap to McLaren when they give it full beans.

Red Bull 0.7s slower than flat out McLaren?

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Max Verstappen put Red Bull in the best position possible by securing pole for the Miami Grand Prix and initially holding off McLaren’s Lando Norris at the start, but that proved to only be a temporary hold-up for the papaya team.

Despite a valiant defensive effort from Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and Norris ultimately made their way through and went on to score a dominant McLaren one-two finish, with race winner and championship leader Piastri 40 seconds ahead of Verstappen – who finished fourth – at the chequered flag.

Arguably their strongest display yet, Marko believes that McLaren finally took the shackles off their MCL39 in Miami, and what happened was “depressing” for those of a Red Bull persuasion.

“The main conclusion is we are too slow,” Marko told Motorsport.com after the race.

“We saw when they [McLaren] were driving flat out, we are seven-tenths of a second behind. We saw the real speed for the first time.

“We have to find some performance straight away, but it was depressing how quick the McLarens really are.”

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Red Bull introduced an upgraded floor for Verstappen’s RB21 in Miami, but while that did little to keep McLaren in check, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner gave a more encouraging assessment of their position.

Pointing to the prior round in Saudi Arabia – where Horner said Red Bull had the pace to beat McLaren if it were not for Verstappen’s time penalty – he stressed that the situation can soon change.

“I think we had some issues with the brakes that Max hasn’t been happy with, and I think that might be compounding or contributing to the issue,” Horner told the media, including PlanetF1.com, on Red Bull’s Miami pace issues.

“But I think that the drivers talk about a numbness in the car once things start to overheat.

“So, plenty to go away and reflect on after this race. But I think McLaren just does a better job of keeping the temps, certainly on this type of circuit at this venue, under control.

“Of course, it varies from circuit to circuit – in the last race we had the pace to beat the McLarens.

“This race has exposed their advantage, and they’ve been able to operate in a window that they’ve been very effective with. Of course, when you look at that performance, it feels like a lot to find, but we’ve seen how quickly from circuit to circuit things can change.

“We know the areas that we need to improve, and they haven’t changed from before we arrived here.”

Red Bull’s gap to McLaren at the top of the Constructors’ Championship is now up to 141 points.

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