Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko believes Max Verstappen remains very much in the fight with Lewis Hamilton for this year’s Formula 1 championship.
So far in 2020, Mercedes has been as dominant as they ever have been, claiming poles at all of the first six races and only failing to win once, that being Verstappen’s victory in the second race at Silverstone.
Yet despite their clear advantage, the Dutchman has benefited from Valtteri Bottas’ misfortune to sit second in the Drivers’ standings, albeit still 37 points behind Hamilton.
And Marko believes the picture suggested in Barcelona didn’t match the reality.
“We were below our means in Spain,” the Red Bull chief told SpeedWeek.
“We were there on Friday with very good long runs at Mercedes level. In the race, however, both types of tyres overheated on the rear axle, so we had to reduce our speed.
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“In addition, from Belgium, the ‘party mode’ is prohibited by the FIA,” he added, though that ban is now coming a week later at Monza.
“This not only affects qualifying, but it also affects the in and out lap and in overtaking manoeuvres.”
The Austrian is also still confident that Red Bull can close the performance gap to Mercedes.
“We still have certain disadvantages with our chassis, which is somehow unpredictable because data from the wind tunnel is not reflected on the track,” he said, “but we’re working hard on that.
“We are bringing new parts to Belgium again to promote stability.
“We’re not even at half-time now, and at some point Mercedes’ lucky streak must end.”
As for Hamilton himself, he too isn’t getting carried away with his advantage, noting Bottas’ situations could easily have happened to him.
“There’s so many opportunities for error,” the Briton claimed post-race in Spain.
“You saw Valtteri’s difficult start and what that could lead to. I could have easily done that, but I delivered on all the areas that I had set out for myself and expected for myself, so I’m ultimately just really happy with it.
“I felt really content with the job that I’m required to do, but I think I was able to go above and beyond today and that just makes me happy.”
