Qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix left everyone at Ferrari very happy, but someone came along to turn off the party… Helmut Marko. The Red Bull advisor always gives something to talk about and now he took the opportunity to leave a little message for his rivals ahead of the race and on Saturday with the sprint race.
It turns out and highlights that Red Bull is not so happy with the first result of the weekend. Max Verstappen and Checo Pérez will start second and third on Sunday, so the Mexican said he was disappointed because he thought he could do better with his RB19.
However, he recognized the lap that left pole position for Charles Leclerc. For his part, Helmut Marko did it in his own way.. The also expilot spoke about the performance of Ferrari on the first day of activity in Azerbaijan and assured that the ‘Bulls’ already knew that this could happen due to the competition in one lap.
“We already knew that they are fast at one lap. For us, it could have gone a bit better. We didn’t manage to get the right temperature with a different tire pressure and we lost too much time in the second sector compared to Leclerc, but hey, okay. we are not far either.
“In the race we should be in a better position. The Ferrari engine is still the best, in a single lap it can perform better at full power. We hope that in the race it will not be like that“, explained Helmut Marko according to Motorsportat the end of the classification.
Fernando Alonso and Ferrari, the “concerns” of Helmut Marko
Beyond the Ferraris, Fernando Alonso has been Red Bull’s great rival so far in 2023. In Azerbaijan there was talk that the Aston Martins were lagging a bit behind during the first sessions and in one way or another, Helmut Marko sees Fernando Alonso as a candidate to compete again.
“It should have been closer, but it had its problems. In fact the differences are too great. Mercedes is 9 tenths behind us, so I would say that our main rival is Ferrari and maybe Alonso“, added Marko, who by the way celebrated his birthday in Azerbaijan accompanied by the people of Red Bull.
