Marko highlights Red Bull sticking point for Monaco

Dr Helmut Marko has cautioned that Red Bull may run into issues at Monaco, as the team struggles to be consistently competitive at street circuits across the whole range of Pirelli compounds.

The Austrian feels the RB20 is quick on either the yellow-walled medium tyres or the white-walled hard, but not both at the same time - something he believes is exacerbated by street circuits.

Qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix will be the most important session of the weekend, due to the tight and narrow nature of the street track. The starting order will go a long way to determining the result of the race, with overtaking notoriously difficult to do in the principality.

Whilst that session will largely be conducted on the red-walled soft Pirellis, McLaren and Ferrari have closed in at recent rounds, meaning there is likely to be a fight for pole position between the three teams. 

The shrinking gap could be minimised further still if Red Bull struggles through practice and qualifying, as it did in Imola, which Marko was also quick to point out. 

"It is particularly on street circuits that we [Red Bull] run into problems. We are either competitive on the medium tyres or on the hard tyres, but never on both compounds," he told Kleine Zeitung.

"Let's see how it will turn out. The field is getting closer together and recently we've had problems in free practice and qualifying."

Leclerc 'will be extremely motivated'

It has been McLaren to take the fight to Red Bull the most in recent rounds, but Marko zeroed in on Ferrari when assessing his squad's two closest rivals.

The 81-year-old views the Scuderia as having under-performed at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last weekend. However, he does not expect a repeat of that in Monte Carlo.

"Ferrari is certainly as fast, they only performed slightly below their capabilities in Imola because of qualifying. But they will definitely be there," he explained.

As for which drivers he is wary of, Marko singled out the Monaco home hero as the person to look out for across the weekend.

"For me, Charles Leclerc is an important contender, as he has always been incredibly fast here, but has also had a lot of bad luck," the Red Bull advisor said. "He will be extremely motivated and will certainly have a word to say when it comes to victory."