Marko Assesses Red Bull's Position Compared To Mercedes, Ferrari And McLaren

Thursday, 22 February 2024 at 13:00

Helmut Marko discussed the differences between Red Bull and its main rivals after the first on-track comparison on day one of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

It is safe to say the first day of pre-season testing went really well for the Red Bull Racing F1 team. Max Verstappen completed 143 laps behind the wheel of the brand-new RB20 without any technical issues or other setbacks.

What's more, the Dutchman broke his previous year's best time on the first testing day already after a few hours of the morning session and then improved the time so much that he gapped all the competition by more than one second.

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The advisor of the Red Bull team, Helmut Marko, asserted the RB20 was "very impressive" and that the car "responded flawlessly" throughout the whole day. He also told the media in the paddock in Bahrain:

"There's always a risk when you change concepts. Just look at Mercedes, they've had their problems with the previous concept."

There was quite a significant risk that the RB20 would not perform as the team imagined from the first lap. But, the Austrian team is very happy with how the first day went, suggesting everything works as expected.

"But our car worked from the very first lap, we're very proud of that and of course happy with it. The reliability was incredibly good."

Even though it is tough to make comparisons during testing days, Marko suggested he feels Red Bull is currently in a better position than Ferrari or McLaren.

"From what I've seen, Ferrari had more problems with the tires than we did. The McLaren seems a bit more twitchy than our car."

Mercedes was far behind Red Bull regarding lap times after the first day of testing, but George Russell asserted that Mercedes focused on other things. Marko expects Silver Arrows to get quicker but feels his team is in a decent position ahead of the first race.

"I don't know what Mercedes has done today, but they will at least be a bit faster than what they've shown. But anyway, we can work towards the race weekend with confidence."