Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has insisted that Mercedes’ recent comments don’t matter as they’re not viewed as a “serious competitor”, given their current deficit to the Austrians.
Mercedes were considerably slower than Red Bull and Ferrari recently at the Italian Grand Prix, in what was a disappointing weekend for the Silver Arrows.
Whilst Mercedes struggled, it couldn’t have been any better for Red Bull, who claimed yet another 1-2.
Leading the 1-2 result was, unsurprisingly, reigning World Champion Max Verstappen, who claimed a 10th consecutive victory.
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This saw him eclipse Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 record for nine wins in a row, something Toto Wolff tried to downplay.
The Mercedes boss insisted that the record is just “for Wikipedia”, whilst Lewis Hamilton also shrugged off the remarkable achievement.
Wolff and Hamilton were criticised for their response, although Marko has insisted that Red Bull don’t care about what the German outfit say.
“This is the difference [between Mercedes and ourselves],” he told Motorsport.com.
“We look at our team to get the best performance out of our own team, and we don’t worry about Mercedes as long as they are not a serious competitor for us.
“We just look at our own stuff. We do our best and we don’t make up all these kinds of stories like they are doing.”
The aerodynamic regulations have not been a success for Mercedes, who have won just once since the start of 2022.
In the same time period, Red Bull have been victorious 31 times, making Marko believe that Mercedes can’t “deal with losing” because they were previously so dominant.
“I think it’s very difficult for Mercedes to deal with losing. That’s the problem you have when you’ve won for so many years of course,” Marko said at the Italian GP.
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“But, at the end of the day, you have to be realistic as well. If it’s not possible [to win], then it’s not possible. You have to be able to appreciate what other teams are doing as well. We did that in the years when Mercedes dominated.
“Back then we just said to ourselves ‘we have to work harder’, because at that time we were simply not good enough compared to them.
“You can keep saying that the things we are achieving at the moment are not that special, or at least that is probably what they think, but in the end, you just have to focus on yourself because that is the only thing you can influence.”