Red Bull's Helmut Marko takes a subtle dig at McLaren amidst the team's newfound form post upgrades

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko recently took a subtle jibe at McLaren after their recent rise in performance. Marko hinted that McLaren could have copied some car concepts from his team.

In 2022, the FIA brought major aerodynamic regulation changes in F1. While most teams struggled with new car concepts, the Austrian outfit was ahead of the curve. They comfortably won both the 2022 and 2023 F1 world championships with Max Verstappen. Coming into 2024, however, other top teams have significantly closed the gap to Red Bull.

In the first eight races in 2024, McLaren's Lando Norris and both Ferrari drivers have won races, making the early title fight closer than the last two years. McLaren brought a major upgrade package at the Miami GP, which allowed Norris to win his first F1 race. Ferrari brought upgrades to Imola, which reflected in their qualifying pace at Monaco, allowing Leclerc to win his first home race.

Red Bull leads the table with 276 points but is closely followed by Ferrari with 252 points and McLaren with 184 points.

Ever since the Austrian team nailed the car concept back in 2022, its rivals started studying the aerodynamic design of the reigning world champions. Speaking to OE24, Marko stated that since it has been nearly three years since the aerodynamic regulation change, some teams have started copying Red Bull's car concepts.

He claimed that McLaren's surge in performance after their upgrade could be because they were copying car concepts.

"We are now in the third year of driving with the current regulations, and people are copying them. Some copy better, and you can now see the result at McLaren. Ferrari has also constantly developed," Marko said.

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Andrea Stella's optimistic verdict of the upgrades that allowed McLaren to challenge Red Bull

After Lando Norris won his first race at Miami, Andrea Stella was delighted with the upgrades that allowed McLaren to challenge Red Bull.

Speaking on the "F1 Nation" podcast after the Miami GP, Stella explained how McLaren noticed improvements through data after applying the upgrades and how it accurately correlated with on-track performance as well.

"We know that we did improve the car because we see that the data correlates well on track with the development tools, so we are encouraged and optimistic," McLaren team principal said.

Stella further stated that for McLaren to consistently challenge the reigning world champions on every track, they will need to double the effect of what their Miami upgrades caused. Nonetheless, he was happy that McLaren was able to challenge the Milton Keynes team and defeat them in Miami.

"But I think, looking at the numbers, looking at how much we actually improved the car, I would have said that we needed two steps of this size to be competitive regularly with Red Bull. We have delivered only one [so far]. We look forward to the next one, and this would make me much more optimistic that we can take the serious challenge to Red Bull," he added.