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Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko has taken another dig at rivals Mercedes and Ferrari as he questioned all the talk about upgrades without any tangible benefit. The race in Barcelona was supposed to be the one where teams brought new sets of upgrades to the car and ultimately close the gap to Red Bull up front.
Throughout the 2023 F1 Spanish GP, there has been no evidence of this happening. Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin have brought their versions of upgrades but none of them seem to bring the kind of performance that would help close the gap to Red Bull.
On the contrary, we've seen teams like McLaren and Alpine make a jump in performance. The second row featured Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly which was an impressive feat by the two teams.
Talking about Red Bull's rivals, Helmut Marko said that he continued to hear about the upgrades but none of them have truly reflected on the stopwatch.
“I only hear [about] updates but I don’t see it on the stopwatch. I think we improved a very good car from last year and we were surprised that our rivals don’t come any nearer. I only hear [about] updates but I don’t see it on the stopwatch. I think we are doing the right thing and obviously something is not so well with our rivals,” he told Sky Sports.
Helmut Marko talks about the Red Bull drivers
Talking about the drivers, Helmut Marko hoped Sergio Perez would have a strong race and rebuild his confidence that has taken a beating over the last few races.
“I was worried he was stuck in the gravel but fortunately he came out but he didn’t make it into Q3. I think he needs a good race tomorrow and then his self-confidence will be back,” he said.
Talking about Max Verstappen, Marko didn't think he would face much of a challenge in the race because of the control he seemed to have over everything.
“I think Max is in great shape. You see how everything comes so easy and if you watch the car, there’s no movement, nothing. So I think it will be difficult to beat him tomorrow,” he added.
The race in Barcelona will be interesting to watch but it is safe to say that Red Bull's Max Verstappen might just be out of reach from the competition. Behind him though, things could get quite interesting between the other drivers.
