The tire wear is the strong point of Red Bull
Two races have barely passed and Red Bull already seems untouchable. Their main rivals don't appear threatening in the immediate term, and for Helmut Marko, the team's dominance is linked to one thing: tire wear.
Who can stop Red Bull? The question can already be asked after just two races. Two victorious doubles pushing Mercedes and Ferrari far behind. Only Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso seem capable of competing at the moment. According to Helmut Marko, the secret to such success lies in tire wear.
In an interview with Sky Sports, the Austrian technician highlights that his opponents have closed the gap in qualifying but not in the race: the midfield, Mercedes, Aston Martin, and to some extent Ferrari, have gotten closer, especially in the qualifying phase, says Marko but adds that in the race, from what I saw, we were a second faster at times. This seems to be linked to the fact that we still have the best tire wear performance, specifies the Austrian.
Impotence in other teams
For the other team bosses, the observation is clear and everyone sees Red Bull clearly ahead of the others. Toto Wolff has to deal with a poorly born car while waiting for a complete overhaul of the W14. But for now, the Mercedes boss remains confident: « We just want to give everything we have and then see what the result will be. We were able to catch up on a lot of things last year with a car that was bouncing too much and overshadowing everything. We won a race and got closer to them, and I think that must be the aspiration », concludes Toto Wolff.” Alpine’s sporting director, Alan Permane, is clear-sighted and sees Red Bull simply untouchable: « It seems that no one is getting close to Red Bull this year, they seem to have an extra second per lap honestly.”
Horner remains cautious
On his side, Red Bull’s boss Christian Horner prefers to stay grounded regarding his team’s dominance. He is not worried about the capabilities of other teams to come back into the game: “I have no doubt that our opponents will come back quickly and aggressively, especially when we return to the European season, where the first updates appear,” Horner specifies. For him, the gap will narrow starting from the first European Grand Prix: “We expect things to stabilize quickly once we return to Europe,” concludes the British.
