Helmut Marko believes Ferrari is currently the best team in the world, going by their engine power as projected in Barcelona.
During the Barcelona testing, Ferrari came in to surprise everyone. After a poor 2020 and a revival in 2021, nobody expected Ferrari to bring in a powerful engine in 2022.
Other team bosses have already resorted to calling it the best engine of this year. The Red Bull adviser, Helmut Marko, claimed that Ferrari has the best engine easily in F1 right now.
His claim comes after Ferrari’s shakedown in Barcelona testing. He even said that the Maranello based team has managed to overtake both Mercedes and Red Bull.
“The first balance of the test in Barcelona was that Ferrari overtook Mercedes and Red Bull,” Marko told RTL. “They are teams that have different technical concepts and in Bahrain, the fine-tuning will be decisive. In terms of engine power, it seems that Ferrari is now the best.”
Marko isn’t the only one to hype Ferrari ahead of the new season. Mercedes’ Toto Wolff also called their engine best in F1, whereas Lewis Hamilton appreciated Ferrari’s developments in 2022.
Though, Ferrari so far tried to downplay all the praised. Team Principal Mattia Binotto claims that Mercedes and Red Bull would be 2-3 months ahead of them anyway.
Also read: Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz claims his team has no clue where his team stands before F1 2022 season
Ferrari might not put itself between Red Bull Vs Mercedes
Despite the hype, Marko believes that the 2022 championship battle will once again remain between Red Bull and Mercedes. The Austrian claimed that his team had a remarkable campaign in Barcelona.
He accepts that his team found some faults with the car, but it seems to be solvable before the start of the season. Thus, the team would be working on that before Bahrain.
“Verstappen and Perez both they told us that ‘yes, it drives well’,” he continued. “We still have weaknesses, of course, but they seem solvable with relatively little effort. The first impression was very good.”
Max Verstappen is all for Red Bull
On Thursday, after a massive spread of rumour, Red Bull officially declared that Max Verstappen had signed a new contract with the team. The new deal keeps the Dutchman with them till the end of the 2028 season.
The report doesn’t reveal the amount he will earn with Red Bull until 2028. But the reports circulated on Wednesday claimed that he would be in the same earning bracket as Lewis Hamilton.
