Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, Helmut Marko, views McLaren and Lando Norris as the primary threats in the battle for the Formula 1 World Championship. As a result, the 81-year-old Austrian wishes Mercedes the very best for the Grand Prix in his homeland. “That would certainly help us in the championship,” he believes.
The relationship between Marko and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has significantly improved in recent months, which cannot be separated from Mercedes’ interest in prying Max Verstappen away from Red Bull sooner or later. Marko’s statements leading up to the Austrian Grand Prix clearly indicate that the mutual animosity has now disappeared.
Red Bull has a lead of sixty points over Ferrari and a whopping 93 points over McLaren in the constructors’ championship. However, Marko is particularly fearful of McLaren, which has demonstrated in recent races with Norris that it is at least equal to Red Bull in terms of pure speed. Moreover, Red Bull is also struggling with Sergio Pérez’s chronic form slump.
‘We Could Face Difficulties’
“We still have a challenge ahead,” Marko states in his column for SpeedWeek. “Max always has a chance to win, but we’re running a sprint weekend, which means we only have one session to set up the car. The last few races, we always needed all three training sessions to balance the car, so if this problem persists, we could face difficulties.”
He continues: “Lando Norris remains our biggest rival. So, I hope that Mercedes becomes stronger and becomes the second strongest team for a while. That would certainly help us in the championship.”
