Red Bull enjoys a “friendly” rivalry with Ferrari and doesn’t expect tensions to escalate as they did with Mercedes last year.
A new era of Formula 1 regulations triggered a reshuffle of the competitive order in 2022, but the Milton Keynes-based outfit remains a firm frontrunner, even if reliability has been their weakness so far.
In contrast, Ferrari has jumped from the midfield to the front, taking the place of Mercedes, resulting in several epic battles between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, who both have two wins apiece so far.
But where animosity grew with Mercedes both on and off the track as last season progressed, Red Bull thinks their relationship with the Scuderia will remain good.
“It’s a new rivalry,” Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko told De Telegraaf. “Mercedes is at least half a second too slow at the moment, but who knows, they might be able to solve their problems.
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“I think it’s better to fight with Leclerc and Ferrari than with Mercedes, it is now more on a sporting level. I know we’ve only had a few races, but I don’t think it will escalate as much as it did with Mercedes.
“It’s a very sportive and friendly competition between Ferrari and us.”
Reigning world champion Verstappen is currently 27 points behind Leclerc after two retirements in the first four races, and Marko does expect the pair to battle potentially all the way to Abu Dhabi.
“[Without his DNFs] he would be easily ahead,” he claimed.
“But there are so many races coming the important thing is we know we have such a strong package so the championship will be very exciting.
“Hopefully it doesn’t go to the last race like last year!”
The other big battle between Ferrari and Red Bull will be off the track as both teams try to optimise the development of their cars.
“I think it’s going to be like last year between Mercedes and ourselves. Some of the circuits will favour one car and others will favour another. It’s so difficult to forecast,” chief technical officer Adrian Newey told the F1 Nation podcast.
“Development for sure is important but the other important factor this year is the cost cap.
“It means we have to develop within that restrictions so perhaps we’re making choices where things we might have introduced before, we wait for a bit longer and try to build up a bit of a package before we introduce it because we can’t afford to do what we used to do last year or years gone by where there would be something every race.”
