Red Bull chief Helmut Marko asks for unusual favour from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes
Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has requested a favour from Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
Helmut Marko admits he wants Mercedes to improve after Lewis Hamilton’s podium at the Spanish Grand Prix - because it would be good for Red Bull. Hamilton ended P3 in Barcelona as Max Verstappen won the race with a two-second gap to McLaren’s Lando Norris.
And though they were once bitter rivals, Marko says he wants to keep seeing better results from the Silver Arrows. This was Hamilton’s first podium finish of 2024 while team-mate George Russell ended third in Canada, his only podium of the year, before coming home fourth in Spain.
By contrast Norris has four second-placed finishes and a first ever career win in his last six races. The Briton is 31 points adrift of three-time world champion Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.
As Norris bids to bridge the gap to the Dutchman to give him his toughest title fight since 2021, Marko admits it would be good for Red Bull if Hamilton and Mercedes were able to consistently challenge the McLaren man.
He wrote for Speedweek ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix: “Another challenge awaits us in Spielberg. Max always has a chance of winning, but we will spend a weekend there in sprint format, and that means that we only have one session to set up the car.
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“Recently, however, we had always needed all three practice sessions to bring the car halfway into balance. If this problem persists, then this could make life difficult for us. And last year came the resurrection of McLaren at the Red Bull Ring.
“There they brought their upgrade and from there they were quick. However, Max drives practically flawlessly, thank God Lando can't do that yet, but he remains our main competitor.
“I therefore hope that Mercedes will become stronger and be the second strongest force for a while, which would certainly help us with a view to the World Championship.”
It marks a significant change of thinking from Marko and Red Bull given previously, it was them and Mercedes going head-to-head for titles. Hamilton, though, has not won a Grand Prix since the 2021 race in Saudi Arabia ahead of his move to Ferrari at the end of 2024.
After his best result of the season, Hamilton feels Mercedes are making significant progress in chasing down the leaders. He reflected: “I feel great, I feel fantastic, I’ve got plenty of energy.
“After a bad start, to recover and get back into P3 is a really, really great job. I’m really happy. We’re getting there, we’re getting closer, and a big, big thank you to the team, because we’re slowly closing the gap.
“This is the best weekend I’ve had all year and for a long, long time, for like 15 races or something crazy. It’s good to be back, it’s good to have battles like today, it’s good to reassert and reaffirm.”
While Russell similarly said after his P4: “It’s been a couple of races in a row now, we’re fighting for the front rows of the grid, fighting for podiums.
“It’s really exciting to see the progress we’ve made and I feel like we can really build from this now.”
Norris finished fourth in Austria last year with the two Mercedes P7 and P8 at the Red Bull Ring, where Verstappen has won four of the last six races.
