Helmut Marko raises Red Bull alarm over ‘crazy’ Lando Norris advantage

Helmut Marko has described Lando Norris’ pace as “crazy” and said Red Bull have an “alarming” deficit they need to overhaul.

Norris finished 20 seconds clear of P2 Max Verstappen in another blow to Red Bull’s bid to retain the Constructors’ and Marko believes the team have to use this break period efficiently if they have any hope of catching up.

Helmut Marko raises Red Bull alarm after Singapore GP

The 2024 F1 season is unusual in that there is a second break from now until Austin but unlike the summer shutdown, teams are free to work on their cars in the upcoming weeks.

For Red Bull, that is more crucial than most as they look to fight back in their losing Constructors’ title fight.

“It’s crazy how he [Norris] has pulled away,” Marko told oe24. “Our deficit is alarming. We urgently need performance.

“Thank god we now have four weeks to work on it. There should be a lot to come.”

Team principal and CEO Christian Horner spoke in similar terms, saying there will be a lot of late nights” at their factory in Milton Keynes.

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“McLaren is the benchmark car at the moment and we have a bit to catch up,” Horner said. “But we’ve got the people and the capability to do that.

“I think that we’re gonna fight all the way to the end of the championship. We’re 52 points ahead [in the Drivers’] with six races to go with a lot of races, a lot of points on the board. So there’s a lot of racing still to happen.

“We’re certainly going to fight hard through the next triple header and then the final trip header after that.”

Red Bull have lost big points to McLaren in the last four races with Norris also out-scoring Verstappen by 27 points.

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