Marko fears Mercedes: "Russell is only 41 points behind Verstappen"

When Österreich Marko asks if the World Cup champagne is already chilled, he replies: "Nonsense. I just calculated it: fifteen races we still have ahead of us. Even Russell is only 41 points behind Verstappen. Everything is still possible," says the 79-year-old man from Graz. This year it is especially important to continue to develop the car well because there is still a lot of potential to unlock due to the fact that it is only just being driven under the current regulations.

Marko, therefore, does not want to discount Mercedes yet in the battle for the drivers' and constructors' title."Their car is getting faster every day, their fastest top times are already at our level or even better. So you really can't write them off. If Mercedes suddenly dominates everything again, then Hamilton will also come back." The seven-time world champion does have a bigger gap towards Verstappen to close than teammate Russell: 75 points is the margin between Hamilton and Verstappen at the moment.

Will Hamilton strike back?

Russell seems to have the upper hand within Mercedes anyway. Marko has also noticed this, but at Red Bull, they think that Hamilton will make a move during the season. Hamilton himself is in any case extremely keen to be able to fight for victories again. The British driver hopes that Mercedes will have definitively closed the gap to Red Bull and Ferrari from the British Grand Prix (early July).

Next week's Azerbaijan Grand Prix does look set to be a difficult challenge for the W13. Like Monaco, Baku is a street circuit with very specific characteristics. Andrew Shovlin suspects again, a difficult weekend for his men.