Marko no longer holds back: 'This is just dominance'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Red Bull Racing is the team to beat in Formula 1 in 2022. After a difficult start that was turned into a strong advance, Dr. Helmut Marko no longer holds back. The Austrian calls Red Bull's current form pure domination.
Marko calls Red Bull dominant
Due to reliability issues, Max Verstappen lost important points to rival Charles Leclerc at the start of the season. Although those problems have still not been resolved at Red Bull, the picture is now completely different at the halfway point of the season. Verstappen is head and shoulders above rivals Leclerc and Sergio Perez. Red Bull team advisor Marko is therefore no longer so cautious in his statements.
Speaking to Motorsport.com the Austrian says the most important thing is to finish and avoid reliability problems. The team is on a very strong run: "Normally we have to chase the competition in the first half of the season, but now we are dominating. You have to say that if you win seven races out of the first nine, that is domination.”
Red Bull reliability still not what it should be
Red Bull have not had such a good start to the season for over a decade. The last time was in 2011 when Sebastian Vettel won six of the first eight races of the season. The German and the team cruised to the championship that year without a hitch. That doesn't mean anything about 2022, but Marko's enthusiasm suggests a repeat of 2011 is possible. At least, with reservations.
According to the advisor, the reliability of the team needs to be improved. It is an important part of the championship when you drive on the limit. According to Marko this is also the case with Ferrari and Mercedes. Ferrari is competing at the front and therefore has more problems. Mercedes have not had a technical DNF yet; they are not competing at the highest speed and are working around their own problems a lot.
Red Bull's major and most serious problems seem to be mainly in the RB18's powertrain. Verstappen recorded two DNFs this season and Perez also crashed out in Canada with gearbox problems. Verstappen also suffered from a faulty DRS system on his rear wing for several races. The team then showed in Barcelona that they can still win, but to win the title over 23 races, reliability needs to improve a lot.