Mar.17 (GMM) McLaren’s obvious early dominance in 2025 can still be overcome – within as few as five races.
That’s the claim of self-confessed “optimist” Dr Helmut Marko, the powerful advisor at Red Bull.
He was speaking after the chequered flag in Melbourne, where despite a close finish in tricky conditions Lando Norris became the first non-Max Verstappen world championship leader in years.
Mercedes’ George Russell, also on the podium, doubts the Woking based team can be beaten.
“If you have a six-tenths lead at the beginning of the year, nobody overcomes that over the course of the year,” he said.
Heads are being scratched at Red Bull and elsewhere about precisely how McLaren has managed to produce a car with far greater superiority not only in getting heat in the tyres, but then resisting degradation.
“This is the greatest superiority I’ve even seen in a racing car in this particular area,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.
“Normally, if you light the tyres up early, you pay for it in wear. But this McLaren is not like that.”
Red Bull is suspicious of McLaren’s wing flexibility, but Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insists: “It certainly has nothing to do with that.
“It’s not pure performance,” he added. “They manage to really attack the tyre, but when we do that, we cook them.”
Marko is confident Red Bull can still challenge for the 2025 title.
“It’s all about maximizing in this period,” he said. “After 8 to 10 laps, we see our tyre degradation really start to happen and then McLaren is a second faster.
“But we hope that we are able to close that gap with them over a maximum of five races. We have some other problems, but the tyre wear is the biggest problem.
“We know what we are working on, and we are working hard,” Marko added. “In three to five races we can hopefully solve it. As I said, our tyres need to warm up faster and then last longer. We have an upgrade in the pipeline, but it will take a little time.”
In the meantime, Marko says Red Bull and Max Verstappen will try to keep the pressure on.
“Anything is possible when you keep the pressure on,” he said. “Because it wasn’t just (Oscar) Piastri who made mistakes – Norris almost spun too.
“They are two very strong drivers, and the car is almost perfect, but this is only the first race of 24, and we haven’t given up yet.”
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