Marko is not worried: 'Ferrari drove with higher engine setting'

Judging purely by the timesheets of the first and second free practice sessions, it may not have been Red Bull's best Friday of the year, but internally they are satisfied with how the first day of the Italian Grand Prix weekend went. Especially in terms of the long runs, it all looked fine and that makes the Austrian racing team optimistic.

Good start for Red Bull

The race simulation is very important for Red Bull, as both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were given a grid penalty after changing their combustion engines. During FP2, the RB18 was the fastest car with a full fuel tank, so Marko is still aiming for victory.

"The speed is there and our longruns were very convincing, not only on softs but also on mediums," Marko told Motorsport-Magazin.com. That Verstappen opted for an engine change again now (he did the same a fortnight ago at Spa-Francorchamps, ed.) has everything to do with the characteristics of the Monza circuit. "You certainly don't want to change in Suzuka or Austin and overtaking is easier here and on top of that we are in top form."

Ferrari engine ran harder

Although Verstappen had to leave the fastest time to a Ferrari twice on Friday, Marko is not worried about the qualifying runs. In fact, he suspects Ferrari had already opened up the engine a little more in Italy. In Sector 1, Charles Leclerc was invariably faster than Verstappen, but that will be different on Saturday, according to Marko."If you look at what the top speed looked like, they didn't run the same engine settings there," the Austrian said.

The first two practice sessions did not go entirely smoothly for Red Bull. Sergio Perez had to deal with a flapping rear wing when open in FP1, something that had also been a problem for the current world number one in the Constructors' Championship earlier in the season. After intervention things went a bit better. Marko:"The problem comes up again with every wing. But we are getting the hang of it."