Marko on Mercedes era: 'For at least four years due to that'

Helmut Marko is in a second period of success with Red Bull Racing.The Austrian racing stable won the World Championship four times between 2010 and 2013 with Sebastian Vettel, it is already at half that number with Max Verstappen. Marko, however, does not forget where it came from.

The start of the hybrid era prevented Red Bull from continuing its run of world titles with Vettel. The team lost its supremacy in Formula 1 and saw Mercedes take a great leap forward, with Lewis Hamilton being the celebrated man for a long time.

With the exception of Nico Rosberg's world title in 2016, the Brit managed to hold the first spot in the World Championship until 2020. For Red Bull, there was no fighting it. "Mercedes' dominance for at least the first four years was due to superior engine performance," Marko stated in an interview with Motorsport-magazin.com.

With the arrival of Verstappen in 2016, they were soon convinced they had a future World Champion on their hands. At the time, however, it could not yet provide the talented driver with a car that allowed the Dutchman to fulfil those ambitions, causing frustration to be felt.

According to Marko, keeping the team happy was by no means easy, but there was nothing else to do. "It was difficult to keep motivation high when people see that you have an engine with which you cannot win," he said.