Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has fired a huge shot at Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, following reports that the Silver Arrows tried to poach the Milton Keynes-based team’s famous chief technical officer Adrian Newey.
It was reported by F1 Insider that Mercedes attempted to sign Newey before the iconic engineer signed a new deal with Red Bull, something the leading side only recently announced.
Newey’s expertise has played a vital role in Red Bull’s current domination, with the engineer having seemingly understood the new aerodynamic regulations better than anybody else.
Newey has designed all of Red Bull’s title winning cars since he moved from McLaren in 2006, with the 64-year-old having signed a new long-term contract with the Austrians last week.
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This didn’t stop Mercedes from at least attempting to sign him, in a bid to end their current woes.
Mercedes have seen their superiority fall to pieces since the new regs were introduced, with the Germans often find themselves nowadays as the third best team on the grid.
Red Bull on the other hand, have gone from strength to strength since the start of 2022, with the side having won 22 of the 27 completed races since the start of the new aerodynamic era.
To highlight their current dominance, Red Bull have won every single race so far this season, with four of their five wins having come in the form of a 1-2 finish.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Mercedes attempted to sign Newey, who is an integral cog of the Red Bull winning machine.
Supposedly, a personal assistant at Mercedes tried to call Newey, with the PA in question having actually been a former Red Bull employee.
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It’s reported that the personal assistant was under order by Wolff to try and negotiate a deal with Newey, something the engineer rejected in favour of staying with the Austrians.
Mercedes’ attempt at signing Newey hasn’t gone down well with Marko, who suggested that Wolff clearly doesn’t have ‘confidence in his own people” to get the Silver Arrows back to the front.
“Mr. Wolff may not seem to have the full confidence in his own people to fix the problems with their car,” Marko told F1 Insider.