Helmut Marko maintains that Red Bull are ‘not worried’ about the threat by Toto Wolff of Mercedes promising to question everything about Red Bull’s car.
The two rival teams have been at each other’s throats on and off the track the entirety of this season. Especially concerning the legality of each other’s cars.
The latest episode of off-track politics happened on Friday in Brazil. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fined 50,000 euros for handling the rear wing of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes under Parc Ferme conditions.
Also read: Max Verstappen jokes about paying his fine for touching Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing
It was later that the Dutch driver admitted that he was just examining “how much the rear wing was flexing at that point”. It was also reported that an hour and a half before the session started, Adrian Newey accompanied by Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan “marched into the FIA office with a mountain of papers and videos”.
Just an observation – that is a lot of vertical movement. Compare this to Vettel in the next tweet. pic.twitter.com/4iBQr7JYgR
— CYMotorsport (@CYMotorsport) November 13, 2021
The ‘papers and videos’ in question are supposed proof that Mercedes have been bending the rules.
The issue in question is the striking straight-line speed the Mercedes have gained. Something very similar to what Mercedes themselves raised questions over Red Bull’s straight-line speed before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix earlier this year.
The speed of the Mercedes was quite noticeable at the Sao Paolo Grand Prix weekend where Hamilton blitzed his way from P20 to P5 in the Sprint race and did the same in the main race. The Red Bulls had no answer to the immense speed of Hamilton’s car.
The Boss Battle
Now, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has issued a warning to Red Bull that they will keep an eagle eye on the rival car and will examine “every single bit of tape” which falls of the RB16B.
Red Bull’s head of the Junior Driver Programme Helmut Marko is convinced that they have no reason to be worried about the threat by Wolff.
Taking a jibe at the Mercedes Team Principal, Marko had this to say.
“Mr Wolff talks a lot when the day is long.”
“Our cars were always legal in the technical scrutineering. In any case, we are not worried. And he has been watching closely all year anyway.”
The DRS issue a coincidence
Marko spoke about the issue of the flexi-wing of the Mercedes which Red Bull brought up to the FIA on Friday. He even addressed that the illegal DRS flap was not what they had intended to highlight.
“Our enquiry on Friday was not about the DRS mechanism but about another area of the Mercedes rear wing,” said Marko. “The fact one followed the other was pure coincidence.”
It has been reported that Red Bull are waiting to obtain evidence solid enough to protest the flexi-wing on the Mercedes.
“We are on the case,” reassured Marko.
