Red Bull adviser Dr Helmut Marko has compared his team’s rivalry with Ferrari to the bitter one with Mercedes, indicating that there is a larger degree of respect between themselves and the Scuderia.
Red Bull went toe-to-toe with Ferrari in 2010 and 2012 as Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso claimed 17 race wins between them across those two seasons as the German came out on top, and while their rivalry was highly competitive, extremely rare were moments of controversy.
Contentious moments might include Ferrari’s team orders at the German Grand Prix over 11 years ago, but internal rivalries within a team is not so unexpected, and there always appeared to be a mutual appreciation between the Austrian and Italian teams.
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Last year though, Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton became involved in several clashes on track, including big accidents in Silverstone and Monza as they battled for the championship and, partly owing to the histrionics of social media fans, the atmosphere in the paddock was often toxic.
As is extremely well documented, the final race of year was invariably polemic, and typical of the extremely tense 21 races that had preceded the finale in Abu Dhabi in which Verstappen snatched the championship in the final lap.
Littered in amongst that was constant bickering between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner, and Dr Marko notes that the rivalry with their Silver Arrows is more political than that with Ferrari.
“Ferrari and we have a similar approach. There’s passion, fascination and sport in the foreground. At Mercedes, there was a lot of politics involved with him, which creates a different atmosphere,” he said in an interview with F1-Insider.com.
The Austrian went on to discuss Charles Leclerc, and divulged that the Monegasque, much like the reigning champion, is driving with little to lose, and insinuated that Hamilton felt threatened by the young Dutchman.
“With Ferrari there is a better relationship. What’s more: Max is now driving against Leclerc, they grew up together in karting, have known each other for a long time, are a generation,” he explained.
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“It was different with Lewis Hamilton: He is much older, he was the king whose throne was shaken by a much younger one. From a psychological point of view, this is a completely different requirement.”
Leclerc leads the Drivers’ Standings by 34 points from Mercedes’ George Russell, with Ferrari on top of the constructors’ conversations as we head into the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix this weekend.