Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko believes the team can now look at stacking downforce onto the RB15 after a strong weekend in Australia.
While a sizeable deficit to Mercedes remains in qualifying, the race is a different story with Max Verstappen able to pass Sebastian Vettel and fall just short in a late charge against Lewis Hamilton and having to settle for third.
It was a performance that still got plenty of attention, however, as the potential of the Red Bull-Honda partnership and Marko was only happy to increase the hype.
“We kept the distance to Mercedes within respectable limits,” the Austrian said.
“We are not looking behind us to Ferrari now. For us, first place is always the bar, so we look forward.
“We want more than third places. But the team is on the right track, and if we talk about pace, then we were on equal terms with Hamilton.”
With the Japanese engine proving more than capable of keeping up with their rivals, Marko also thinks it can pave the way for a change in philosophy.
“Now we have to work on the chassis as fast as possible,” he continued.
“We need more downforce because we’ve built cars with as little downforce as possible in recent years so the drag is not too great, but that’s not the problem anymore.”
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Specifically on Honda, the Red Bull figure praised a flawless weekend on the engine side.
“It’s encouraging for the future that we did not get a single warning on the engine side throughout the race,” he told Speed Week.
“Everything from fuel consumption to power, battery and so on was always in the green.”
And, as a result of what transpired, Marko now thinks a Verstappen championship challenge is very much on the cards.
“Max started the season very well,” he noted. “That is how you win titles, by achieving the optimal result and scoring points.
“With our car, he will be able to fight for the title. Absolutely.”
