“But Mercedes are still the favourites”- Helmut Marko is still confident of Mercedes’ abilities, despite claiming his team’s best testing since inception.
Red Bull was the dominant team on the grid during the pre-season testing, with Max Verstappen acing the timing and the new recruit Sergio Perez also looking comfortable on the car except for minor hiccups.
In contrast, Mercedes- the biggest rival of Red Bull in the world title contention has shown some issues, which would be needing deep introspection.
Helmut Marko speaking on the overall situation, termed this campaign as the best pre-season testing in the existence of team Red Bull but still refused to dismiss the Brackley based team.
“But Mercedes are still the favourites. We think they drove with more fuel than we did. That means they are very confident & have a lot more up their sleeves,” said Marko to RTL.
“We are the first competitor; that is how the situation looks like. Behind us, there will be a fight. I think McLaren will stand out a bit more than the others, but they are not on our or Mercedes level. The midfield is a lot closer.”
Our car is calmer
Marko doesn’t want to give a statement that returns to bite him back, especially with Mercedes, who every year doesn’t appear to be well during the testing, but he is at least have positive remarks about Red Bull’s performances.
“In comparison to Mercedes, our car looks calmer. That makes it easier for the driver because it is more predictable, and you can be much better on the limit. That was our aim. A fast car that is predictable. And I think we succeeded in that.”
Marko then talked about Red Bull’s sister team- Alpha Tauri; Pierre Gasly did the most laps throughout the weekend, whereas Yuki Tsunoda impressed Marko.
“Our Yuki Tsunoda has delivered a sensational performance during testing. We expect Alpha Tauri to be at the front of the midfield battle.”
