"Difficult times are ahead for us" - Red Bull fears tough 2022 F1 season after reliability concerns

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko suggests that there may be more reliability concerns for the team than the problem that caused Max Verstappen’s retirement at the Australian GP. The Austrian spoke to Sky Sports Germany after the race and mentioned that the team was lacking in many areas compared to Ferrari.

Suggesting that there might be more areas for Red Bull to work on, Marko said:

“We don’t just have these reliability problems, which are actually largely unknown to us – we don’t know that at all. The other thing is this weight problem. We’re well ahead [heavier] of Ferrari there. That’s a difficult balancing act, even with the cost cap.. Difficult times are ahead of us. We were surprised at how fast Ferrari was today.”

The senior talent scout of the Milton Keynes team suggested that there are more areas such as the weight of their car which they need to work on. With budget caps in effect, Marko believes reducing the weight of their car to match Ferrari is going to be difficult.

He also suggested that there could be many unknown issues that could problems that could crop during the course of the season that the team needs to be prepared for.

Describing Max Verstappen’s retirement, Marko said:

“Gas leaked out at Max's. Where and how we don't know yet. It's a defect that has nothing to do with the causes of the failure in Bahrain. We have to find that, because there has been a massive gas leak somewhere. There must have been a broken line somewhere, or something was wrong with the tank. That's why we told him to stop immediately and preferably somewhere where there is a fire extinguisher nearby."

The Austrian revealed the car was leaking fuel, which was the reason they made the Dutchman retire his car. Smoke bellowed from the rear of Verstappen’s car as he pulled over near a fire marshal.

Commenting on Ferrari's performance and Sergio Perez' result, Marko said:

"They had to pay much less attention to the tyres than we did..Ferrari was in a class of its own and, unfortunately, we were clearly behind, even though [Sergio] Perez drove a great race."

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Red Bull have confirmed that a fuel leak caused Max Verstappen’s retirement

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has confirmed that a fuel leak caused the Dutchman’s retirement in Australia. Revealing that the engine will be sent to Honda’s Sakura facility in Japan for a diagnosis, the Briton believes the fuel leak is external and suggested it was not related to the power unit.

Confirming the fuel leak to Sky Sports F1, the Red Bull CEO said:

“Obviously it’s very frustrating to have a DNF on Max’s [Verstappen] car. It looks like a fuel system issue, external to the tank, that has caused the issue. So obviously it’s gone into quarantine, the parts will obviously return to Japan, and we’ll obviously try and understand the problem as quickly as we can.”

Verstappen lamented at the car’s inability to complete the race and reacted to it, saying the result was unacceptable. The current championship points tally places the Dutchman sixth in the Driver’s standings and Red Bull team third in the Constructor’s behind their 2021 rivals Mercedes.