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Dr Helmut Marko explained Red Bull's disappointing performance with Max Verstappen in the recent races, revealing the "wrong" correlation between the wind tunnel and the simulator. Verstappen recently returned to the top after winning the Sprint at COTA.
The last event that Verstappen won was the Sprint in Austria. Since then, the team's performance went down and they failed to win any of the races. Their performance has improved over the last three race weekends, culminating in a second-place finish in Singapore and a Sprint race victory in Austin.
Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko explained that Verstappen's exceptional driving skills had masked the team's underlying issues. Despite the driver's dominance, the team discovered a discrepancy between their wind tunnel and simulator. This revelation echoed Marko's previous concerns about the wind tunnel's accuracy.
"I think we had already lost it a bit [of performance], and the difficulties were only obscured by Max's skills," he told Sky Germany. "It was realised that the correlation between the wind tunnel and the simulator was wrong."
Marko further explained that the team had implemented a three-phase upgrade program to address the wind tunnel and simulator correlation issue. These upgrades were introduced in Baku, Marina Bay, and culminated with the final update in Texas.
"After that, we just worked our way through it piece by piece, and the important performance of the car comes from the floor."
"It was three phases. First in Baku, then in Singapore and now we have the final version here in Austin. That, thank God, has led us to the right direction."
After winning the Sprint, Max Verstappen set his foot down in the qualifying session and qualified P2 for the main race. He will be starting behind his championship rival, Lando Norris.
"That's unfortunate": Max Verstappen after qualifying P2 at COTA
Max Verstappen's final Q3 lap appeared promising, with strong sector times. However, a yellow flag caused by George Russell's crash prematurely ended the session. This ultimately handed the pole position to Lando Norris, who had been holding provisional pole.
Verstappen, who will start the race from the front row, mentioned that he made a mistake on Turn 19 at COTA on his earlier run and was unable to set another laptime after Russell's crash.
"On the first lap I lost quite a bit of time at Turn 19. That's unfortunate. I knew we had another run but unfortunately I couldn't finish the lap, otherwise we had a good shot but that's how it goes," he said.
"We are still on the front row at least but the potential was there to be first, so that's very good," he added.
McLaren is ahead of Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship; however, Max Verstappen is still leading the drivers' standings. There is currently a 54-point gap between him and Norris
