Helmut Marko’s 8-year-old threat about Red Bull quitting F1 due to Mercedes dominance resurfaces
An old interview of Helmut Marko has surfaced on the internet and it shows how the Red Bull Chief Advisor claimed his team might quit F1 because of Mercedes' dominance.
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Formula 1 has seen several eras where a single team has dominated the sport due to their better car designs, sheer skill of the drivers, and even overall efficiency of their workers. Ferrari enjoyed a supreme status during the times of Michael Schumacher as the German won 5 back-to-back Championships for them from 2000 to 2004. Similarly, Mercedes scripted history because of their eight-year long reign over the Constructors’ Championship thanks to Lewis Hamilton‘s unparalleled results.
Now, it is the age of Red Bull and the brilliance of Adrian Newey’s cars. The Austrian team did enjoy their time in the spotlight when Sebastian Vettel won back-to-back F1 titles from 2010 to 2013. And Max Verstappen now looks well on his way to equal and even shatter Vettel’s records as he has already gathered a Championship hattrick. Such has been Max’s dominance in this season that he has scripted history by winning 17 out of the 20 Grands Prix that have been held till now.
As the season has been completely inclined towards the Red Bull F1 team, the rivals have protested time and again. But their Team Advisor Helmut Marko and Team Principal Christian Horner have maintained that they expect the rivals to work and reach their team’s level. In fact, Horner recently talked about Ferrari and how they can return to their winning ways by becoming a ‘racing team again’. But an 8-year-old interview of Marko’s shows that he was no better when he was the rival grudging over Mercedes’ dominance in F1.
If we are totally dissatisfied we could contemplate an F1 exit. Yes, the danger is there that Mr Mateschitz (Dietrich, the late owner of the Red Bull F1 Team) loses his passion for F1.
Christian Horner had once claimed waiting for Mercedes’ dominance to end as being similar to serving jailtime
The Red Bull drivers have won all but one race in 2023 till now and the season is coming to a close quite soon with only two Grands Prix left. Because of this obvious dominance, several rivals have been vocal about Red Bull toeing the line with F1’s rules. But Horner has been unapologetic about it. He said to ESPN he had had to wait during Mercedes‘ long F1 dominance streak just like his rivals are waiting now.
I mean, seven long years is a long time. You get less for crimes! We had to wait to get back into a competitive position, and we have to do a lot of watching of a lot of Mercedes winning and so on you know.
In other news, all the teams are gearing up for a frosty night of racing at the Las Vegas GP. The race is slated to be the coldest in F1 history as nighttime temperature in the Sin City might drop below 5° C as per predictions. It remains to be seen if the Red Bull squad remains unaffected despite the obstacles like it has at numerous other outings in this season.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)