Photo: Jiri Krenek / Mercedes-AMG F1 Team
Despite holding on to a 101-point cushion over Mercedes through seven races, Red Bull aren’t planning on turning their backs completely on a team that’s won the Constructors Title each year, for the past eight years.
In fact, Red Bull F1 advisor Helmut Marko believes that Mercedes are still “dangerous” because of the quick lap times their cars have recently put together and that he’s seen enough potential from the W13 race car in order to be concerned.
“Mercedes is doing incredibly fast laps in practice and also in the race, both with Hamilton and Russell,” said Marko, as quoted by Formel1.de via Motorsport. “Not continuously, so for us it’s difficult to interpret where that lap time is coming from. Listening closely to the Mercedes people, I don’t think they know either.”
"But the dangerous thing is the potential seems to be there. And once that can be called up over a race distance, then they’ll be right up there or right at the front.”
When asked whether he thought Mercedes have been bluffing about their performance all season, Marko was clear to say that he didn’t.
“The bluff was where they had this weird engine advantage and last year the Hamilton engine – there they were bluffing hard. So, I don’t believe that. And it’s really incredibly hard to understand where this [car is] incredibly fast, they’re the fastest in the field at [one] stage, but it doesn’t last long.”
“What exactly changes there, why they can’t drive that continuously, is just – thank God – still the problem, I would say.”
Up next for both teams is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place this weekend. While there are plenty of fast straights there, Baku is still partly a street circuit, which means Mercedes might struggle a bit – like they did in Monaco.
“Mercedes is doing incredibly fast laps in practice and also in the race, both with Hamilton and Russell,” said Marko, as quoted by Formel1.de via Motorsport. “Not continuously, so for us it’s difficult to interpret where that lap time is coming from. Listening closely to the Mercedes people, I don’t think they know either.”
"But the dangerous thing is the potential seems to be there. And once that can be called up over a race distance, then they’ll be right up there or right at the front.”
When asked whether he thought Mercedes have been bluffing about their performance all season, Marko was clear to say that he didn’t.
“The bluff was where they had this weird engine advantage and last year the Hamilton engine – there they were bluffing hard. So, I don’t believe that. And it’s really incredibly hard to understand where this [car is] incredibly fast, they’re the fastest in the field at [one] stage, but it doesn’t last long.”
“What exactly changes there, why they can’t drive that continuously, is just – thank God – still the problem, I would say.”
Up next for both teams is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place this weekend. While there are plenty of fast straights there, Baku is still partly a street circuit, which means Mercedes might struggle a bit – like they did in Monaco.
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