Max Verstappen Saw Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso Duel on Screen While Racing in Bahrain Claims Helmut Marko

When the 2023 season started, Red Bull was the favorite to win the world championship, but not many expected them to be as dominant as they were in Bahrain last week. The Austrian team locked out the front row ahead of the start of the Bahrain GP and brought home a one-two finish led by Max Verstappen followed by Sergio Perez.

Verstappen’s win in Sakhir was Red Bull’s first opening race win since the 2011 season and the entire outfit is on cloud nine. In fact, they are so elated with their performance in Bahrain that chief advisor Helmut Marko revealed that Verstappen was watching Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso’s epic duel on the screen while racing.

Hamilton and Alonso put up a battle for the ages in Sakhir last Sunday. Verstappen, however, did not have to wait for the end of the race to watch what was happening behind him as he told Marko that he caught the action on the big screens around the Bahrain International Circuit while he was in front, miles ahead of anyone else.

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Marko feels Mercedes will catch up to Max Verstappen

After Red Bull’s dominant display in Bahrain, the majority of the F1 community feels that Red Bull will comfortably win both world championships in 2023. Mercedes’ George Russell went as far as saying that Red Bull might win every single race this year, and team boss Toto Wolff agrees.

Marko, however, labeled these claims as ‘nonsense’. The 79-year-old insists that it is impossible to predict the outcome of a season after just one race, and there will be chances for other teams to capitalize on the mistakes Red Bull makes.

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Why is Red Bull’s dominance better than Mercedes?

Quality racing action between top drivers and teams is what makes F1 a huge spectacle. No one likes to see one team dominate for multiple years, but fans fear that just like Mercedes dominated the sport between 2014-2021, Red Bull are set to do the same.

Marko, however, feels that the dominance Red Bull are expected to show will be better than that of the Silver Arrows. The Austrian feels that this is because their inferiority to Mercedes back in the day was not because of their fault, since they got a weak engine from Renault.

Mercedes on the other hand, are accountable for their own shortcomings, since they make their own power units. “Mercedes is entirely responsible for the lack of chances,”  he said.