Helmut Marko Disses W13 Challenger While Brushing Off Mercedes F1 Threat

Red Bull took everyone by surprise when they turned up the pace in the final 30 minutes of testing. They went quickest of everyone and topped the timesheets at the end of preseason testing. The Austrian team was struggling in the first 2 days of pre-season testing in Bahrain, but the new upgrade took them ahead of everyone else. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko mentioned the team is only focused on themselves and not really bothered by what their rival Mercedes brought to testing.

He stated that whatever upgrades the German team brought had not worked for them.

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The main thing is that we’re the fastest again: Helmut Marko

As reported by Oe24.at, the Austrian stated he is only concerned that Red Bull emerged as the fastest team after testing. He recognized the upgrades brought by Mercedes got everyone’s attention, but it did not translate in terms of time.

“Ah, right? We looked more at the performance and it wasn’t that impressive. It looks revolutionary what Mercedes has brought. But what matters is the time. And I say: the main thing is that we’re the fastest again. 

But I only remember last year, when Mercedes was also behind in the tests. But we are primarily concerned with our car, and we are doing well there,” said Helmut.

But when asked if the team is worried that Mercedes can solve very huge and come up with something different in the first race of the season, Marko replied, “We don’t look under a competitor’s car unless it’s being picked up by the crane after a crash. Again, we’re focused on being up front next weekend.”

It would be fascinating to see if the pace that the Austrian team showed in the preseason test could translate into race pace next week. There are still question marks whether the final 30 minutes of day 3 was the real pace of Red Bull.

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Marco and the team would certainly hope so. Let’s see if there is a Part 2 in the rivalry of Red Bull and Mercedes come the first race of the season next week.