At the Hungarian GP, Red Bull's most significant car upgrade for the season "does what it's supposed to," a reassured Dr. Helmut Marko stated following Friday practice.
However, Max Verstappen, equipped with the complete set of upgrades unlike his teammate Sergio Perez, finished practice behind McLaren's Lando Norris - by a full quarter of a second.
However, Marko expressed to Viaplay at the Hungaroring, "On the long runs, we were the fastest. We are already noticing a difference compared to the other updates we had, Those updates were a lot smaller and showed little effect.
"But with the rules we have now, we are almost at the ceiling in terms of development."
Despite Norris topping the times, Marko wasn't particularly worried. "Firstly, McLaren revved the engine to full and we didn't. And secondly, Max made a mistake in turn 2."
He also noted that Perez has "90 percent" of the upgrade on his car and was just slightly slower than Verstappen.
Regarding Perez's uptick in performance amidst speculation about his future at Red Bull, Marko relayed a light-hearted comment from Perez, "He told me that he's just come back from vacation. Apparently that helped."
Meanwhile, Ferrari's latest floor modification seemed to resolve their bouncing issues, despite Charles Leclerc's continued struggles, marked by a crash during practice.
"People joked after Monaco that they jumped into the harbour after their victory there but never resurfaced," Marko humorously told Kronen Zeitung newspaper.
"But the circuit seems to suit them here. We have four teams on relatively equal terms."
