F1 Testing | Helmut Marko's predictions for 2021, as the Austrian believes the gap to Mercedes has narrowed
Helmut Marko thinks that Mercedes remain the favourites heading into the 2021 season, but believes that Red Bull have closed the gap.
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In the F1 hybrid era, Mercedes and their star driver Lewis Hamilton have shown an undivided domination over the rest of the field, with Ferrari and Red Bull offering from time to time, a brave but insufficient opposition to the german squad’s ambitions.
In 2020, the Brackley-based won thirteen of the seventeen races of the shortened season, an impressive 76% win ratio. However, in the last race of the season at Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen led the race from start to finish, and secured a win in a very commanding way. Despite Mercedes having switched their resources to 2021 earlier in the year, that win led Helmut Marko and his team to be confident about narrowing the gap to the german squad, especially considering the freezing in the range of possible developments to bring to the cars, compared to the 2020 iteration. He told speedweek.com
“We have narrowed the gap to Mercedes”
“The first race will show how close we are. Mercedes is still the favourite, not least because of the series of successes in recent years.”
“But we worked intensively and purposefully, as did Honda.”
Apart from his team’s chances to bring the fight to Mercedes, the Austrian manager also assessed the situation of his former protege Sebastian Vettel, as the four-times world champion starts a new chapter of his racing career with the freshly branded Aston Martin.
“He needs support in the team, a feeling of security, that has not been the case at Ferrari in the past two or three years”.
Speaking of another Red Bull transfuge, Marko assessed what he thinks Daniel Ricciardo can achieve at McLaren and asserted that the Aussie would be “definitely in the middle of the field”
He added: “McLaren has improved a lot, but I don’t think they will make it to the top.”
In the end, the man from Graz reflected on the challenges brought by Alpine, especially with the French manufacturer now having among its ranks, the two-times world champion Fernando Alonso.
“Alonso is an exceptional talent, very ambitious, focused”
“The team has replaced the entire top management. Alonso is undoubtedly the most experienced of the team. It’s going to be an interesting combination. But I think Alpine will have to work hard to be up in midfield.”
