Marko: "We lap McLaren twice with the same engine!"

Red Bull Racing advisor Dr Helmut Marko has hit out at McLaren, saying the Bulls are able to lap McLaren cars twice in a race while having the same engine under the hood.

McLaren spectacularly fell out with Honda in their three-year partnership between 2015 and 2017, with the Woking-based team switching to Renault-engines ahead of the 2018-season. At first, it looked like they had made significant strides forward, with both drivers scoring points quite consistently, but as the season went on, their form fell off a cliff.

When asked if McLaren’s concerns with the Renault-engine concerned Red Bull during 2018, Marko gave quite a hard-hitting answer.

"We lap McLaren twice in a normal race - with the same engine. So what do you think it is?” he told Motorsport-Magazin.

"Of course, if you only look at downforce - you just have to look at how the previous year went in Spa: full wing, full downforce. Of course, they were the fastest in the corners. 

"But on the straights... if we were going that way, we would never achieve our results. You have to make a compromise. The lap time decides, not the cornering speed.

"Certainly, there is a certain risk, Honda has to catch up, must work aggressively. 

"But that does not deter us. I do not think we can count on getting along with three engines like Mercedes and Ferrari. 

"But Max [Verstappen] and Daniel [Ricciardo] have shown a few times what else is possible. We started from 18 or 19 and in two or three laps we were already in the lead again."