This season has been "so much fun" for Red Bull, who have been watching on as their Ferrari rivals have made a mess of their title challenge.
That is the view of adviser Helmut Marko, who has given his assessment of the rivalry in the first half of the season. The Austrian crowed that it hasn't been much of a battle, amid the Italian team's ongoing struggles with reliability issues and repeated strategy disasters.
Ferrari are 97 points adrift of Red Bull as a result, and things are hardly much better in the drivers' championship. Charles Leclerc faces the unenviable task of reeling in Max Verstappen over the final nine races, with 80 points currently separating them.
Asked by Austrian newspaper Osterreich how the Italians had managed to fall so far behind, Marko bluntly responded: "By doing pretty much everything wrong."
He then elaborated: "In Budapest, for example, for the first time, they didn't give the tyres the right temperature window and also chose the wrong pit strategy. I don't understand why they didn't take used mediums. They would have been better."
Red Bull managed to push Mercedes all the way in the constructors' standings last season, but were still unable to end their dominant streak. But this year it has been much more of a breeze, with the Silver Arrows all but out of the title picture and Ferrari shooting themselves in the foot at every opportunity.
"It has rarely been so much fun," chuckled Marko. "Almost every weekend is a pleasure, quite different from last season where everything cost a lot of nerves. It's just a bit of a shame that Ferrari makes so many mistakes. They are beaten below their value – we really feel sorry for them.
"But once again, they will be back. They have such a strong car." And he went on to insisted that "we really can't lean back yet", as "we still have nine races, that's 225 points for nine possible wins plus sprint and fastest laps".
Meanwhile, Verstappen also said he is much happier this season, and enjoying a more "respectful" title battle with Leclerc, compared to the one he had with Lewis Hamilton in 2021. "We are hard competitors on the track and will always try to beat each other which I think is very normal, but outside of it, you can have a good time as well," he said.
