Red Bull boss revealed Mercedes to be their biggest rival of the season. The Silver Arrows team and the energy drink team have been at it forever. They saw their star drivers, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton battle each other for multiple seasons. Mercedes was the fastest team, taking every victory home as Red Bull struggled to beat them.
However, it was in 2021 that Red Bull saw its very first victory. The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen fought throughout the season. However, in the end, Red Bull was able to able beat Mercedes and win the championship. After which the team hasn’t given up their first spot. Although the win is considered “controversial”, Red Bull is a dominant team as of now.
With their dominance this year, no team has been able to come close. However, there were teams who happened to take the RB path for the glory of two races. Ferrari and Aston Martin were the first ones to do so. Both the teams brought “major upgrades” to their cars mid-season which were similar to the Red Bull car. However, it only worked for them for two races.
Helmut Marko puts his faith in Mercedes to beat Red Bull
Both, Ferrari and Aston Martin were on the podium for two races after which they fell back to their original place. It didn’t take McLaren too long to do the exact same thing. Lando Norris achieved two podiums after their upgrades and enjoyed his glory. However, the time was up for them too. While these teams have come incredibly close to the Bull soaring in the front, they haven’t won any races.
Although a lot of teams have come close to almost beating them, they have lost their spot after a few races. But with Mercedes, they are consistent. He went on to tell Motorsport Magazin, “Statistically, Mercedes should be the first team to put us at risk. McLaren, we saw an upward trend, but we expected more in the last race before the summer break.”
Helmut Marko picks Mercedes to be Red Bull’s biggest competitior in the rest of the season
“Statistically, Mercedes should be the first team to put us at risk. McLaren, we saw an upward trend, but we expected more in the last race before the summer break.”
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— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) August 20, 2023
On the other hand, Mercedes has been consistent with their progress. So far, even with minimal upgrades at a time, Mercedes has maintained a good result through the season overall. Instead of two podiums in exchange for a similar upgrade, they focused on their car. Although they had to see the back of a few teams every once in a while, they did not change their paths and Helmut Marko believes the same.
While the summer break is still in session, the teams have been working on their cars non-stop. Even after years of rivalry, Marko has faith in Mercedes to beat them.