Marco: We're not up to McLaren, but we're ahead of the rest.

      Helmut Marko, Red Bull's motorsport advisor, shared his expectations for the upcoming season in an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, and also admitted that the team risks losing Max Verstappen if it cannot build a car fast enough for him.

      Q: How good is the new Red Bull Racing car?Helmut Marko: The RB21 is more predictable, it reacts to changes in settings exactly as we expect, and not like last year's car. In the case of the RB20, the tempo immediately dropped by a second as soon as we went beyond the range of optimal settings.

      The new car still has certain weaknesses, which we will work on eliminating this season, but there is noticeable progress. However, we are still not up to the level of McLaren.

      Question: What do you look like compared to Mercedes and Ferrari?Helmut Marko: In our opinion, we are ahead of both of these teams, both on the fastest lap and on long runs. For example, we noticed that the tires on the Mercedes car are wearing out very intensively.

      Question: On the last day of testing, you tested a new front wing and a new bottom on the RB21 – how did these new products perform?Helmut Marko: The front wing was working fine, but you can't say that about the bottom. Therefore, in the second half of the final day of testing, we reinstalled the previous version of the bottom on the car. And this combination, i.e. the new wing and the old bottom, worked more efficiently.

      Q: Starting from the Spanish Grand Prix, the FIA will introduce new, stricter requirements for front wing load tests. Could this affect the balance of power?Helmut Marko: With the exception of the smallest teams, all the others have already developed and are using wings that can bend. And to abandon them in the middle of the season is madness! The new rules should either be in effect from the very beginning of the championship, or they should not be introduced at all.  

      The FIA must finally understand that the rules need to be drawn up in such a way that there are no gray areas in them. It is almost impossible to determine exactly to what extent certain elements of aerodynamics bend.

      The teams have a lot more employees than the federation. That's why poor Nicolas Tombasis, the FIA's technical director, has to face off alone against an army of engineers who are always coming up with clever solutions.

      To protect against this army, the FIA must draw up clearer rules that do not allow ambiguous interpretations. And what cannot be verified should be banned.

      Question: One of the consequences of switching to more rigid wings may be that it will be more difficult to find the optimal balance of the landing gear. Maybe a driver like Max Verstappen will gain an advantage because of this?Helmut Marko: Of course, it will be an advantage for him. No one can handle the unstable behavior of a car better than Max. Verstappen knows how to overcome certain shortcomings of cars, and this was one of the reasons why last year we reacted relatively late to the problems with the RB20 that appeared after Imola.

      Question: Does the departure of specialists like Rob Marshall or Adrian Newey affect the work of the team? Or did it just happen that the car problems started when these people left you?Helmut Marko: Let's look at the situation from the other side. McLaren's rise began after Rob Marshall took over. After that, the back of their car immediately began to resemble what it looks like here. This is definitely not a coincidence.

           

      When one or another specialist, together with our team, achieves great success, rivals begin to try to poach him. Therefore, we decided to distribute the powers in the technical department more widely. I guess everything is fine there again.

      Of course, parting with such bright personalities as Rob Marshall and Adrian Newey does not go unnoticed. They have worked in Formula 1 almost all their lives and know it thoroughly, they know all the secrets. Both can be called independent creators who are well versed in all aspects of their business. And when two such tech gurus suddenly leave, it takes time to patch up the gap.

      But new people think differently, and at the same time, among other things, a certain structural reorganization of the engineering department is required.

      Q: Cadillac and Audi are currently looking for specialists: Aren't you afraid that some more engineers might leave you because these teams have something to fight for and they can afford to pay higher salaries?Helmut Marko: The appearance of new teams is not the only problem. People go into some other projects that are not related to Formula 1. In the past, our championship was very attractive for good specialists, but now that has changed.

      Now young people are looking for options that would be more balanced in terms of work and free time. But our season consists of 24 stages, and the pressure is enormous, because everything is at stake for success.  In addition, due to budget constraints, we cannot pay very high salaries. In some other industries, people are already earning more and working less.

      Q: How important is it for Red Bull to show Max Verstappen that you are still able to build a car that allows you to fight for victories? Is there a risk that he might leave the team next year?Helmut Marko: It's no secret that there are performance-related clauses in his contract. Max wants to win and wants to feel that the team is doing everything possible for this. This is a kind of challenge for us.

      And if it seems to him that not everything is being done to ensure that he gets the optimal car at his disposal, then there is a risk that he will look to the side, regardless of what is written in the contract.

      However, with the current level of competition and the density of results, even if we build such a car, it does not mean that we will win 20 races. But we have to ensure that we can fight for wins whenever there are such chances, or at least we have to earn a lot of points.