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Marko plays down Red Bull's title hopes

Published on 18 Feb 2018 13:47
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By: Fergal Walsh

Red Bull's head of driver development Dr Helmut Marko doesn't believe that the energy drink-backed team is in a position to fight for the world championship. In 2017, amid a shake-up of the aerodynamic regulations, Red Bull was tipped to take the challenge to Mercedes, who had dominated the sport for three years.

However, it failed to take the fight to the Silver Arrows and even slipped behind Ferrari, who sprung out of the gates in combat with Mercedes. Despite making some gains towards the end of the 2017 season, Marko doesn't think Red Bull should enter 2018 expecting a title fight.

"I don't think we're in a situation where we can already go for the world championship," Marko told Auto Motor und Sport. "The Renault engine should be more reliable and powerful in 2018, and we'll be fighting with a competitive chassis at the outset.

"But Mercedes is producing a new engine, so the question is whether they'll have an even bigger advantage. If the engine does what we're promised, then we should be a lot closer to Mercedes.

"Adrian [Newey] saw that for the first time that we were able to beat Mercedes on our own and that you can race at the front when the engine is performing well.

"In the past we've always been stronger in the second half of the season. The analysis showed that we always tried to leave it as late as possible, but it doesn't help to try and find a few hundredths every two weeks. It's more important that you go into the season well prepared."

Fergal Walsh

F1 News Mercedes Renault Ferrari

Replies (8)

Rindtchamp

Posts: 304
Ughh not another boring as hell Mercedes season please.. zzzzzZZZZZ
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- Feb 18 2018 - 15:10
Kean

Posts: 692
So he's saying that if the Renault PU performs as promised, it should be powerful enough to beat Mercedes and Ferrari compared to their 2017 specs. But he thinks that Mercedes will make similar gains as that of Renault, but what about the law of diminishing returns? Shouldn't it start to set in now for Mercedes? And if Mercedes pushes too hard, they could start to have reliability problems. So my hopes are still up that we'll see a 3-way fight, possibly a 4-way if McLaren surprises and actually walks the walk and not just talk the talk.
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- Feb 18 2018 - 16:50
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  While the law of diminishing returns is a thing, it only apply if you start to close in on the upper threshold of how good something can be. We saw that Honda reached that point with their 2015-2016 platform, and had to switch to be able to progress. We dont know if Mercedes is anywhere near such a situation. And from what we can get from Marko's statement, they seem to have made some heavy modifications to the Mercedes engine, so it seems like Mercedes are nowhere near the point of diminishing returns. As for Mercedes having reliability problems: for them to press their stuff to their limits, they need to be legit challenged. If they've moved at the same rate as anyone else, or maybe even slightly slower, they will likely be safe in that regard. We can only hope that factors like them trying to downsize their unit and gearbox and not being able to burn oil anymore will slow them down, really. Or that one of the other manufacturers has done something much better over the winter, something I sorta doubt.
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  Feb 18 2018 - 18:35
- Kean
  
  Posts: 692
  @Calle, c'mon that would be such a bummer. I'm wishing so hard for a closer fight this year. Stay with me here, let's all be like the little engine that could... "I think I can, I think I can..." ;-)
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  Feb 18 2018 - 19:27
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  No. Everything is awful. God is dead, and Mercedes will dominate once again. >;(
  
  Mind, I hope Mercedes wont dominate next year, but looking at it, they have such a good margin, that I really dont see anyone able to producing a better all around package. But if Ferrari and/or Red Bull just get close enough, Vettel, Ricciardo and Verstappen all three have the capacity to do good stuff. I hope for a good year.
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  Feb 18 2018 - 20:02
- Kean
  
  Posts: 692
  Now, now, find your happy place
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  Feb 18 2018 - 20:13
ajpennypacker

Posts: 2,475
Considering Marko is not one to make gestures of humility (i.e. he's an arrogant hurensohn), I this as another slide on Renault to justify whatever shortcomings Red Bull may have this year, while also setting up the transition to Honda.
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- Feb 18 2018 - 22:26
- Kean
  
  Posts: 692
  So he's thinking; we don't have a package to beat Mercedes and Ferrari, but as long as we beat McLaren we can blame Renault....
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  Feb 19 2018 - 07:28