Can Red Bull win the Constructors’ Championship again in 2025? According to Helmut Marko, the bulls are starting the new Formula 1 season with a deficit.
According to Helmut Marko, Red Bull will not start the 2025 Formula 1 season as the favorite for the world championship after the winter tests in Bahrain. In an interview with RTL, the Austrian reveals that he expects a “four-way fight between McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and us” this year.
“We are in the last year of the technical regulations. That means the range of contenders for victory has grown significantly,” says Marko, “although McLaren already has an advantage if you look at the test results. That was the case in both the short and long runs.”
Surprisingly, the best time at the Bahrain test went to Carlos Sainz in the Williams (1:29.348), while McLaren drivers Lando Norris (1:30.430) and Oscar Piastri (1:29.940) were only in 13th and 8th place respectively in the timesheet.
But the bare numbers have almost no significance. And especially in the long runs, McLaren made the strongest impression during the test, which is why Marko also admits that Red Bull is currently “two to three tenths of a second” behind the reigning world champion in the long run.
In addition, McLaren’s tire wear was “significantly better” in Bahrain, according to Marko, who also makes it clear that the Bulls’ current deficit is “not yet alarming”. “But the current favorite is clearly McLaren,” emphasizes the Austrian.
Marko: Norris faster than Piastri in testing
At the same time, however, it is “difficult to say” exactly how far ahead McLaren is. Because it was unusually cool in Bahrain, the weather there was “out of the ordinary,” said Marko. In addition, the long runs are not fully comparable because not all teams were driving at the same time.
Nevertheless, McLaren is favored to win the new season based on their impressions from the desert, and Marko sees Norris as the favorite among the drivers, “who got along much better than Piastri”. But that could still change.
Because Marko doesn’t think that Norris will have his teammates under control for the whole season. “I think Piastri is equally strong – or at least I hope so, so that the two of them take points away from each other and we benefit from it,” the Austrian grins.
Max Verstappen has also recently stated that Red Bull is currently lagging behind. ‘I don’t think we’ll be able to fight for victory in Melbourne yet,’ said the world champion.
