A week and a half has passed since the Abu Dhabi season finale in but Helmut Marko is already looking ahead to the upcoming 2025 season. The external advisor of Red Bull sees 'a generation change' next season, when mulitple young drivers will begin their first complete season in the competition. Not only youngsters, but also an experienced driver like Lewis Hamilton is ahead of making his next steps in his F1 career.
The Austrian advisor looks forward to seeing how the blockbuster transfer of Lewis Hamilton will turn out next season, as the seven-time world champion will leave Mercedes after more than a decade to join Ferrari.
Marko, who is known for speaking his mind, has not refrained from issuing a warning to the seven-time world champion as he will now team up with a competitive Leclerc at the Scuderia. "With Charles Leclerc, he will have one of the strongest opponents in qualifying," the Austrian wrote about Hamilton's his next teammate his column for Speedweek. However, he also underlined: "If the car is good, he can still be world-class in the race."
Marko believes Hamilton's motivation will also play a key factor in his form. "We also saw at Mercedes that his motivation was less when the car was not so good. He needs to know that the car can take him to the podium. It is unlikely he will do his best to finish 10th."
Marko sees Red Bull can show their best side in 2025
The advisor hopes to also Red Bull at the front once again, after the team went through a difficult perioud with the RB20 in the 2024 season. The Austrian looks ahead to next season and he does so with excitement. "So there are many reasons to be excited about the new season and we cannot wait to get back to work and show what we are capable of," Marko concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen and Kada Sárközi
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Based on the ending of the last season, I expect Ferarri and McLaren to be very strong!
RB should focus on their own, because they did not succeed in fixing their car yet.
And sure Marco is right, that if you give Hamilton a decent car and decent strategy, he will win races and maybe even more. But there is also LeClerc, who showed in the last race that he also has what it takes and improved in making less errors in the last season.
Maybe he can tell us who will be in the 2nd RBR, rather than giving opinions on other teams’ drivers? Deflecting the heat maybe?
We shall see how he compares to Charles speed during the pre season testing and first few races in 2025.
If he is substantially slower, then thats not going to be too encouraging and his motivation will be about as good as this season, once he started to get out qualified by George more and more often as the season progressed.
It will be fascinating to see. However, it could be that the Ferrari heats its tyres up better and is a better qualifying car than the MB? I wish Pirelli would make less temperature sensitive tyres and we would see better racing at the front. Those 18 inch wheels, combined with the peaky tyres have caught MB out more than most!
Thanks, Marko! ? Very insightful. 2025 is shaping up to be another exciting season, much like 2024, with the new young talent on the grid. Lewis at Ferrari, Sainz at Williams, Ocon at Haas, and Red Bull’s new second driver… I can’t wait, folks!
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