Marko clarifies: "We are not worried yet"

Helmut Marko saw his two drivers finish ninth and tenth on Friday afternoon, but he's not worried about that. The 78-year-old Austrian is confident about the rest of the weekend and thinks there are opportunities for Red Bull Racing again.

"We are not worried yet," Marko notes at Motorsport-Magazin Marko after Friday's practice at the circuit of Barcelona. In terms of speed, things seem to be in order, but when it comes to not doing damage, the task seems to be a bit bigger this weekend."It's not the laps that get cancelled here (by exceeding track limits), but it's the front wing that gets damaged quickly. But we'll figure that out."

Bottas less constant

Especially Lewis Hamilton is seen as a danger by Red Bull. Valtteri Bottas is nevertheless a less constant factor with the German world champion. "Bottas is not so strong at the decisive moments, and he also has weaker days, as you saw in Imola. And in terms of race pace, as you saw in Portugal, Hamilton put Bottas back in his place," he is quoted by Sport1.

Based on the first and second free practice sessions, Red Bull and the RB16B appear to be between one and two tenths behind Mercedes. However, analysis suggests that the team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have some backlogs, so things will undoubtedly be close again in qualifying and the race.