Helmut Marko has all but ruled Red Bull out of victory contention at the F1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Red Bull endured a difficult first day of running as the 2025 F1 season finally kicked off in Melbourne, with both 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen and new teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Liam Lawson struggling with handling issues in the RB21.

Verstappen ended Friday practice in seventh place, 0.624s behind 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Charles Leclerc’s pacesetting Ferrari as he battled unders🍨teer. Lawson had an even trickier day as he finished down in 17th.

Red Bull’s lack of performance led motorsp🔴ort advisor 🐟Marko to give a pessimistic assessment of the team’s chances for the rest of the weekend.

The 81-year-old Austrian believes Su🤡nday’s forecast ra๊in might be Red Bull’s only hope of winning the season opener at Albert Park.

“The first pracꦰtice session was better,” Marko told Sky Sports Germany. “The changes we ma🐎de afterwards didn’t prove successful.

“We still have one more sessi👍on tomorrow, but I estimate we’re about two to three tenths behi🔥nd and, at best, looking at the second row [of the grid].

“[The car] was fluctuating between understeer and ove𒀰rsteer – which, of course, affects tyre wear in the long run. But I believe we know what needs to be done.

“We’re not at the very front but, under normal conditions, a podium finish would be the max🐟imum we can aim for.”

Max Verstappen braced for tough weekend

Verstappen, who is seeking a fifth straight world title this year, agrees that Red B๊ull are firmly on the back foot, admitting the team are “definitely lacking a bit to fight at the front”.

The Dutchman sugges𓄧ted Red Bull do not have an overnight fix for their issues, leaving him braced for a challenging opening weekend.

"The bal♏ance wasn't even completely out, like no massive or major problems, but somehow the grip was not coming alive and just struggling on all four tyres, really, in a sector one an🧜d the last sector," he explained.

"That means of course that w🐻e are not r✨eally up there at the moment.”

When pushed on whether the issues can be easily resolved, Verstappen🦩 responded: "The problem is that it's not rea💯lly like I have major balance problems, so I think it will be a bit hard to fix.

"But it's also nothing that I didn't expect whe♋n I arrived here, so I'm not positively or negatively surprised with the pace that we are showing."