“Mercedes was even further behind than usual,” Helmut Marko throws cheeky dig at Toto Wolff

Mercedes was the team that had suffered the most from porpoising to a point where it was uncertain that Lewis Hamilton would even race in the Canadian Grand Prix due to back problems. Helmut Marko was not pleased when it was made known that Mercedes was one of the top runners gunning for a technical directive to reduce porpoising. It was predicted that this anti- porpoising technical directive which would be instilled from Spa would in turn hurt the top runners and give Mercedes the chance to catch up with Ferrari and Red Bull.

Although it seems like this technical directive has backfired on Mercedes and Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko was all for it. Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had very poor pace all throughout the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. Qualifying was a horror show for the team as both the drivers were about 2 seconds off the pace from Max Verstappen who was fastest in qualifying. In the race, their pace was better but it was no match for the top runners. Max Verstappen who had started 14th, went on to win the race by an astonishing 18 seconds gap to teammate Sergio Perez who finished second. After achieving pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, it was a massive downgrade in performance for the team in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Helmut Marko and a bunch of people were a bit bitter about the anti porpoising technical directive when it was first announced. They were of the opinion that it is unfair for them as they figured out a solution to reduce their porpoising to a minimal rate unlike their German competitors. However there will be a lot of smiles after looking at Mercedes’s performance at the Belgian Grand Prix. Marko is known in the paddock for his unfiltered comments and as always, he didn’t leave the track without throwing a cheeky dig at Toto Wolff.

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‘Toto Wolff’s technical guidelines worked well this weekend,’ Helmut Marko said in an attempt to provoke Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff

“Maybe we’ll have to change something to the chassis because of Toto Wolff’s technical guidelines, they worked well this weekend,” he said.

“Mercedes was even further behind than usual.” Helmut Marko further went in to talk about the new chassis and updates that the team will bring in the upcoming round of the season which includes a massive upgrade. “And on the chassis we want to continue to develop also because the chassis of the 2023 will not be so different. Constant updating of the car is part of our philosophy,” he continued.

In the end, it seems like it all worked out well for Helmut Marko and the Red Bull team. Toto Wolff will clearly be furious with how the Belgian Grand Prix weekend went and will be left questioning what went wrong. By gunning for the technical directive, did the Mercedes team boss compromise his team’s performance?

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