Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has admitted the RB21 is simply “too slow” as a mixture of the track and temperatures play against the team.

Max Verstappen finished Friday’s practice day at the Bahrain International Circuit in seventh place, over eight-tenths of a second down on the pace set by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Helmut Marko: Red Bull can’t keep tyre temperatures under control

“We are too slow,” was Helmut Marko’s assessment of Friday’s running after Verstappen finished in seventh, with 27 laps on the board in FP2, with teammate Yuki Tsunoda in 18th, 1.5 seconds away from the front after completing 25 laps.

It’s a very different picture from last weekend’s victory in the Japanese Grand Prix, where Verstappen took the win ahead of the McLaren duo – but the Red Bull driver was similarly off the pace in practice on that occasion, too.

However, what’s different about this weekend is that, unlike Suzuka, the track temperatures (over 40 degrees Celsius) are bringing tyre life far more into play than the low-degradation surface of Suzuka.

“The tyres are becoming far too hot,” Marko, Red Bull‘s advisor, told media, including PlanetF1.com, immediately after the end of FP2.

The 81-year old Austrian also confirmed that engine modes, which can create bigger gaps than reality, were “not much” of a contributing factory to the deficit.

Unusually, the tyre wear ebbed and flowed for Red Bull, with Marko revealing that the pace actually improved for Verstappen after a period of aging.

“Strangely enough, at one stage, the tyre recovered, and we are doing the same lap times as Lando, but that was only three or four laps out of 50,” he said.

“[It’s] more difficult, and the main problem is the tyre temperature, which we can’t keep under control.

“As soon as the temperature goes up, we are sliding and sliding makes it even worse.

“The track doesn’t suit us, and also these high temperatures don’t suit us.”

But, having turned things around last week from Friday to Saturday, Marko is hopeful of producing a similar turnaround this week.

“We will change like we did in Japan,” he said, “and hopefully, we get this golden mixture of setup changes so that we are more competitive tomorrow.”

Asked whether its downforce levels or something similarly specific that is causing the issues, Marko said, “If we know, we would change it”.

As for Tsunoda, who finished seven-tenths of a second down on Verstappen’s time, Marko was unconcerned by the deficit of the Japanese driver in his second weekend with the RB21.

“Yuki did try something else,” he said.

“So his time is not representative. He will be, for sure, faster tomorrow.”

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