Red Bull maestro drops damning 'two to three tenths' verdict compared to McLaren after the F1 pre-season test

Red Bull maestro Helmut Marko feels the car is two to three-tenths slower than McLaren after the F1 pre-season test. The pre-season test was held in Bahrain, as has become the norm in the past few years. What was, however, not normal was the weather with very low temperatures and even rain making an appearance.

Red Bull, however, faces a challenge as the team tries to close the gap to the front. The team started the 2024 F1 season on the front foot as Max Verstappen dominated the first few races. As the season further progressed, the car continued to get worse while McLaren continued to get better.

It wasn't until the race in Austin that the team identified the areas where the car wasn't working the way it should and thus applied changes to make it more raceable. As it turned out, those changes did help with the drivability, but it also left a bit to be desired as the car had a deficit to the McLaren.

In the pre-season test too, it appeared that McLaren had the legs on Red Bull, and talking to sport.de, Helmut Marko confirms that there's a two to three-tenths deficit the team has to overcome:

“It’s hard to say exactly what that looks like, because the weather conditions were completely out of the norm. It was cold, there was strong wind. It was even raining. It was only the case on Wednesday, when we were on a par with McLaren.

But on Friday, the last day, I would say that we were still two to three-tenths behind in the long run. What’s more, McLaren’s tyre wear was also significantly better than our data indicated. McLaren is the favourite everywhere with this car.”

Marko did not, however, feel that there was any reason to panic, as he believed that Red Bull had made progress over the last season.

---

Red Bull's Marko still not panicking despite looking at the deficit to McLaren

Helmut Marko felt that the 2025 F1 season could see a three-way or a four-way battle involving teams like McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari (via sport.de):

"In my opinion, it will be a three-way or four-way battle between McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and us. Though, if you look at the test results, McLaren already has a lead. That was the case in both the short and long runs. That is still not alarming. We have made progress, but the current favorite is clearly McLaren."

Red Bull is currently working from a deficit heading into the 2025 F1 season, and that is where the team would need to be peerless in other areas of racing, including strategies and race execution.