2 weeks Ago By Michelle
Helmut Marko has written off Mercedes’ challenging Red Bull for the 2025 championship titles despite a dominant 1-2 result at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Mercedes came to the fore last week under the lights in Sin City with George Russell racing from pole position to the chequered flag, leading Lewis Hamilton home in a Mercedes 1-2. It was the Brackley squad’s first victory since the summer break, “a real surprise” for Russell who told the media including PlanetF1.
com : “I don’t know how we’ve been so quick, but I’m just riding this wave right now.” Even Mercedes’ technical director James Allison was “annoyed” by the pace of the W15 as he admits the team didn’t understand it. “We certainly did not expect the sort of dominant performance that we showed.
There could be lots and lots of reasons for it,” he said. “You mentioned track temperature, an unusually cold environment, racing in the desert in the winter in Las Vegas, but there will be more to it than that. “I think the key thing for us to do is to dig into the many different possible explanations over the coming week to see if we can turn that annoyance into a degree of understanding and then use it to our benefit.
” However, understanding has been hard for Mercedes to come by in Formula 1’s ground-effect aerodynamic era. 👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates 👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates Although the team unlocked performance from the W15 in the run-in to the summer break, winning Grands Prix in Austria, Silverstone and Spa, they fell back in the races after the break and managed just one podium before Las Vegas 1-2. Marko admits he felt a bit bad for the Brackley squad as their Las Vegas 1-2 was overshadowed by Max Verstappen wrapping up his fourth World title.
“In Las Vegas, Mercedes not only won, which was a complete surprise, they were really dominant in all sessions,” he told OE24 . “They were just unlucky that we won the World Championship, so their strong performance was overshadowed.” Pressed on whether the race result was a sign that Mercedes could be Red Bull’s ‘big opponent’ in F1 2025, Marko says that depends on whether it was a one-off or they continue their good form in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
He, however, doubts they can. “They have to find consistency,” he said. “In Las Vegas there were special conditions due to the low temperatures.
“Let’s wait and see if they perform in the last two races, which I don’t think they will.” As for those last two races, the Red Bull motorsport advisor hopes Red Bull add another win to their season’s tally of eight. “Hopefully we can win at least one race,” he added.
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