Marko: 'Don't understand why Vasseur sees everything so positive'

Red Bull Racing team advisor Dr Helmut Marko is happy with his team's big lead after three F1 races in 2023. Ahead of the restart of the season in Baku, the Austrian is particularly curious about Mercedes' updates and whether Ferrari can show what it is worth. After all, so far it is not going well with the competition.

Marko does not yet pass judgment on Mercedes and Ferrari

The two teams were consistently ahead of Red Bull in the championship some five years ago, but since last year the racing team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez has been the dominant factor. In 2023, Mercedes failed to close the gap and Ferrari also had a particularly poor season start compared to 2022. Marko is not yet willing to write off both teams in an interview with Switzerland's Blick.

Earlier, the team advisor addressed Sebastian Vettel's future role at the team. In the same interview, Marko later said, "Mercedes obviously wants to know and find out what is going on and will come with updates in Baku. And from Ferrari, so far we have not been able to get the right assessment. What I just don't understand is that team boss [Frederic] Vasseur can see everything so positively."

Overall analysis Marko says enough

In recent months, the team advisor saw the flaws piling up at Ferrari. Marko saw too much tyre wear at Ferrari and laughs at the Scuderia's top speed as long as reliability is not in order. The Austrian also does not expect the Vasseur-led team to get its problems under control this year. It is not Mercedes and Ferrari that are the main challengers, but Aston Martin.

Top speed is therefore the only issue where Red Bull will not be the best in 2023, according to Marko. To complete his story, Marko also said last month that he was surprised by the bouncing from both Mercedes and Ferrari. That Mercedes has stuck to the 2023 concept is shocking according to the Red Bull chief also notes that Mercedes is acting panicky, which is strange for the streamlined dominant team of the previous decade.

Marko's comment about Ferrari and Mercedes at Blick shows to some extent that he does not want to write off the rival teams just yet, but his overall analysis of the past few months shows a fair picture of what is lacking at Mercedes and Ferrari and what is going well at Red Bull.