With Formula 1 paralyzed in its summer break, Red Bull Racing’s main adviser in the highest category of motorsport, Helmut Marko , who has never been trivial, especially with his statements, compared the speed of his team and Ferrari in the start of 2022.
Whenever the Austrian veteran answers questions from the media, he leaves several juicy headlines. And this time it was no less in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com.
Marko talked about various aspects. The first of these was the performance duel between Ferrari and the Milton Keynes team. The F1-75 has often given the impression of having something more than the RB18 from a performance point of view, but the former Austrian driver does not see it that way.
“Is Ferrari a bit stronger than us? That’s not true,” he said, “we’ve always been on their level, perhaps with the exception of Barcelona. It’s often been the course of the day that has decided which team was ahead.” , in addition to the strategic or technical problems, which luckily have been less frequent for us, I would say that just one lap, in the dry, we could have a slight disadvantage with them.
“Leclerc has done as many poles as victories we have this season. But the pole does not say much. When you are in the race and you can overtake, it is not an important criterion. Only in circuits like Monaco or Singapore is it different,” he added.
Charles Leclerc competing on track with Max Verstappen
Marko , to support his thesis, gave some examples. In the first place, he spoke about Le Castellet, a race in which Charles Leclerc did not cross the checkered flag after his own mistake that left him out of the battle when he was leading.
“The important thing is that you can go fast in the race without killing the tyres, without stressing them more than normal,” he explained, “and I have to say that I don’t agree at all that Ferrari is superior in that aspect.
“At Le Castellet, Max Verstappen was faster in the race. If you do 10 laps and you are less than a second from the driver ahead of you, it means you are faster than him. In the race, the RB18 was the fastest car.
“Throughout the season I would say we’ve been on par. It depends on the day and also the updates and so on. They always have a particular effect for one or two races, but even those didn’t create any significant performance changes,” Marko concluded. .
