Marko tough on Ferrari and Mercedes: 'Problems not under control'

According to Helmut Marko, Aston Martin is Red Bull Racing's biggest challenger. Red Bull Racing's top adviser sees too many problems at Mercedes and Ferrari to make up for it so quickly.

For Red Bull, the 2023 Formula 1 season could not have started better than with the 1-2 for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Whereas the Austrian team had two cars out in 2022, it was now a size too big for the competition. Fernando Alonso came closest, 27 seconds behind Perez and 38 ahead of Verstappen.

While everyone inside Red Bull is cautious about predicting, the same is not true for Marko. In any case, he is tough on Ferrari and Mercedes. ''We do not believe that Ferrari and Mercedes will get their problems under control. We therefore see Aston Martin as the first pursuer,'' stated the Austrian at the Kleine Zeitung.

The problems at Ferrari are clear: reliability leaves much to be desired. That was also the case in 2022 and Marko was (happily) surprised to see that those problems have still not been solved. At Mercedes, they are struggling with the concept. The old 2022 concept was kept for 2023, but that now seems to be a problem.

''They want to completely overturn their concept. We're not about that It's also going to be incredibly difficult for them, with the cost cap they can't deliver unlimited new parts,'' Marko concludes. Mercedes is already coming up with updates in Saudi Arabia, but the team itself was already not expecting too much from them.