The lucky Red Bull drivers took advantage of Leclerc’s retirement to cool down their tires
As it's time to take stock of the first Grand Prix of the year, Helmut Marko declares that Red Bull's rivals, particularly Ferrari, made things easier for them this weekend.
The first race of the season has just delivered its verdict, and it is safe to say that the Red Bull team made a strong impression by crushing the competition. The team secured a one-two finish, with Alonso, in third place, more than 30 seconds behind Verstappen. For Helmut Marko, advisor and head of the young driver program at Red Bull, this result is partly due to the lack of opposition during the race: “It was a very good race for us, but our opponents made it easy for us. Leclerc’s retirement meant that we no longer had to push to the limit, and Alonso took too long to overtake the other cars.”
While acknowledging the performance of the Spanish driver, the Red Bull advisor took a dig at Aston Martin. Today, there were three Red Bulls on the podium, one of them with a different engine. The reason is the design of the AMR23, which bears a strong resemblance to Verstappen’s RB19. This can be partly explained by the fact that the new technical director, Dan Fallows, was the chief designer at Red Bull last year.
Furthermore, Red Bull has managed to adopt the right strategy. Against the current (soft-soft-hard) compared to their rivals (soft-hard-hard). The Austrian explains this strategic choice « We did the calculations and it was a safe bet for us in the event of a safety car. We have seen in the last races that the safety car comes out quickly and we didn’t want to be defenseless. »
Even with a penalty, Red Bull remains on top.
The dominance of Red Bull is all the more concerning for their rivals as the reigning World Champions are under a penalty due to exceeding the budget cap. They have less time in the wind tunnel than all the other teams. If this penalty is applied in 2023, its effects are therefore imperceptible at present.
Helmut Marko has complete trust in his team to ensure that this penalty has the least impact on Red Bull’s season. The penalty came relatively early. We focused on evolving and optimizing what wasn’t ideal in the old car. If we bring something to the wind tunnel, it has to work, and we succeeded in that. The core of the team has been together for 15 years, they know what to do, and they are in harmony with each other. Of course, we have Newey, but the others are also highly skilled and intelligent individuals.
