Red Bull chief Helmut Marko revealed his team are still wary of Mercedes and their ‘dangerous potential’ despite their early struggles in 2022.
Following the Monaco Grand Prix, Red Bull find themselves 101 points ahead of octuple world champions Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship, with Ferrari as their closest rivals. This is seen in the Drivers’ Championship too, where reigning champion Max Verstappen is 41 points clear of George Russell and 75 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
The Silver Arrows have won the title each year since 2014, winning plenty of races along the way - but they are certainly struggling to adapt to the new era of regulations. Porpoising, which sees cars bouncing uncontrollably, has derailed Mercedes’ season and any progress to combat the issue was undone in Monte-Carlo, where the problem appeared worse than ever to the dismay of their drivers.
While seven-time world champion Hamilton has struggled for consistency this season, his new teammate Russell has impressed and is the only driver on the grid to finish in the top five in each race this season. The 24-year-old has also secured two podiums in a promising run of form to start his career - and Marko is wary of the potential speed at the hands of the all-British lineup.
“Mercedes is doing incredibly fast laps in practice and also in the races, both with Hamilton and Russell,” Red Bull’s special adviser told Formel1.de. “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.”
Russell is currently in P4 in the Drivers’ Championship, behind only leader Verstappen, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and other Red Bull star Sergio Perez in the title race. Hamilton finds himself in sixth place with 50 points - 33 behind Carlos Sainz.
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When asked if he thought Mercedes had been bluffing about its speed all season, Marko refuted such claims: “No, it’s not a bluff. 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 were 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.”
The 22-race F1 2022 campaign continues with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on June 12.
