Marko after disappointing first day for Red Bull: "It's a mystery"

Helmut Marko knows there is work to be done for Red Bull Racing after the first day of the Italian Grand Prix weekend. The Austrian stated that the softs are not yet working at Monza at all for the Milton Keynes based race team.

"The soft tyre is a disaster for our car," Marko said to Motorsport-Magazin.com. In the second free practice, the RB16 of Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon had to concede more than a second on the fastest time of Mercedes. "It is a mystery. We have to work on the set-up so that we get everything out of the soft tyres. We will now push for improvement in the simulator."

Red Bull's adviser believes that Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will again dominate this weekend, despite the fact that the ban on qualifying mode has now been introduced. "In the longruns we have the second car off the field". Daniel Ricciardo could certainly be a threat on Saturday afternoon, but Marko's expectation is that Renault can't level during the race.

However, the 77-year old man from Graz is not entirely reassured. It will be important that Red Bull have a good qualification session. "If we fall too far behind, it will be dangerous," Marko said to the German medium. Renault has a very high top speed, which will make it difficult to overtake the yellow cars on the long straights.