Marko expects three-way battle: 'Hamilton nine points behind Verstappen'
Helmut Marko, despite Mercedes' struggles, is still reckoning with the eight-time constructors' champion. The Red Bull advisor expects the team to still get involved in the fight at the front, so we will see a three-way battle in 2022.
After the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, Marko let it be known that he was happy with the fight against Ferrari, which he believes is more exciting than the fight with Mercedes. Mercedes' W13 still seems to have a lot of problems at the moment, so for now Ferrari and Red Bull Racing do not have to fear for the team.
Mercedes is still mainly struggling with the porpoising problem, and also the rear wing is said to cause a speed deficit on the straights. In Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton managed to finish third, but in Saudi Arabia he had to make do with just a tenth place. Still, the points difference towards Max Verstappen is not very big, but the Dutchman crashed out in Bahrain due to a technical problem.
'Hamilton is only nine points behind'
Despite Mercedes' backlog, Marko expects the team to get involved in the title fight later in the season. "Hamilton is only nine points behind Verstappen. They are not writing off the world championship yet. They are definitely coming. It will probably turn into a three-way battle then," he says on ServusTV.
WOW, this line: "... but the Dutchman crashed out in Bahrain ..." ?? Seems legitimate haha. No wonder some articles sound fishy and inaccurate. But regarding the rest of the article, I do believe that Mercedes will catch up eventually to Red Bull & Ferrari in one way or the other. Winning WCCs for 8 years on the bounce isn't something every team can do. I don't really care who wins, I just want to see some good, action-packed races.
Why is Marko even worrying about Hami challenging Max? If Mercedes is able to redesign their car to be a front running team again this season, Max will have to be racing George first, rather than Hami as he will be the quicker No 1 driver for Mercedes this season.
I am sure they said the same about Ferrari and Schuey in 2005 ... sometimes things don't always turn around that quickly hey ... especially with a budget cap, limited CFD, testing and wind tunnel hours ... the PU development freeze isn't helping either .... that's why I dislike what they have done to the sport .... too many restrictions ... so if a team makes a mistake, the road to recovery is tough ....
2005 was an overhaul of the rules with having to finish entire races on the same tyres. Then rules changed again in 2006 going to homologated V8 engines and bringing back tyre changes. We already have the homologated engines in place and Merc are a long way behind RBR and Ferrari in terms of chassis design and understanding it. How can you expect to develop your car when you don't even understand why it's bouncing up and down.
Hams certainly is not anything close to the greatest ever despite what the British say. Had the best car for 8 years in a row but only 6 championships to show for. Max has had the best car for 0 years but has 1 championship to show for it. Now George is getting the better of Hams. So I think Hams chances of being remembered as an all time great has slipped by. But he still has the chance to be remembered as one of the great wingmans of all time. Finished 10th with the 3rd best car won't help his cause, but if he can get it up to 7th or so while George finishes 5th it will really help his chances of one day being known as a better wingman than Bottas. Get in there!!!
Ham didnt hqve the fastest car in 2017 or 2018. Ferarri did. But ham won both of those?RB had the fastest car for many of the Races in 2021 and yet Ham still beat Max by 10+ seconds in the last 4 races. And didnt need Massi to give him a title
The Merc was definitely quickest in 2017 and 2018 just Hams and Merc underperformed and made errors.
Ferarri and Binotto admitted that the ferarri was faster even after made more upgrades. Vettel underperformed and Lewis once again outperformed the ferarri drivers in a slower car
It's a bit early to draw conclusions. Many teams are still making progress and solving issues.
A 3 way title fight between Max, Charles and George would make for an enthralling season. The 3 best drivers in relatively evenly matched cars? About time.
Get in there!! They're favouring George, man. Something's not right, man. Car's being manipulated, man.
LH does not have the talent to adapt to an undrivable car. So no worries there. Until he has a rocket on rails, nothing is going to come from him. Max and George clearly proved they can adapt.
Hope Alpine and perhaps Alfa get in on the fight as well. What the heck, a different set of drivers on the podium every week would make it enjoyable.
I can't see merc getting near the top 2 teams this season there engine is diabolical. All the merc powered teams at the back of the grid. With that bouncing aswell, a rear wing isn't going to make a huge difference. Merc biggest enemy is the the budget cap. They can't do what they normally do an throw money at the problem.
