Red Bull taskmaster rules out Mercedes competition for the championship: "The world title is out of reach"

Dr. Helmut Marko has ruled Mercedes out of the title fight because he feels that the team has a lot to develop, which isn't possible at this stage.

After the 2023 F1 Bahrain Grand Prix, the much-hyped Mercedes W14 didn't yield the expected result. The car was much less competitive and faced trouble in maintaining the racing position even against an Aston Martin.

While it is expected that they will overcome these issues after the upgrade package works, Dr. Helmut Marko, Red Bull's advisor, feels that it is impossible since the season has already started. He said:

"The world title is out of reach for Mercedes."

Though Mercedes' team principal, Toto Wolff, spoke about the possibility of a major design change the team will go through (owing to the 'zero pods' design that has been criticized by many), Marko feels that it will still not make the team good enough to win the title.

This is because in his opinion, a team cannot design multiple cars at the same time, and in order to do that they will have to spend a lot, which is not quite possible because of the budget cap set on teams. Marko added:

"You can't design two or three vehicles. If a completely new vehicle were to come now, it would be difficult due to the financial limits."

He also added that a car developed much later into a season cannot be much better because it would lack testing and the experience gained from the races:

"And even with a new vehicle, you cannot expect it to be immediately competitive. You have to develop it to be competitive from the start. They lack the three days of testing and the racing experience."

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Ferrari boss contradictory to Helmut Marko's opinion about Mercedes

Although Helmut Marko sounds adamant about his opinion on the Brackley-based outfit situation, Frederic Vassuer, Ferrari's team principal, was quite optimistic for them.

When asked about their performance, he stated that since only one race has been done, there is nothing that can be said for sure. At the same time, races on different tracks can turn out differently and the team can perhaps have an upgraded performance. Vasseur said:

"It's race one and we don't have to do any conclusion. I think that Mercedes will wake up soon. We don't know what will happen next week."

Interestingly enough, Marko, too, had earlier stated that the team will perhaps get better as the season goes on owing to their development. However, his current statement about the team focuses more on their title chances rather than their upgraded performance.