Helmut Marko believes “McLaren dominates like we did in 2023”. Helmut Marko believes the next five races will be crucial for Red Bull’s title hopes against McLaren.

McLaren, now you are the reference in F1
McLaren’s journey over the past two years deserves praise and applause. The Bahrain Grand Prix of 2023 feels like a distant memory, with a car that struggled to stay on track and Andrea Stella (in his first race as team principal) asking for time and patience, at least until the first package of updates. The developments referred to by the engineer from Orvieto arrived in Austria: from that moment on, McLaren has been on point, and with top-notch simulator-to-track correlation, it has climbed the ranks in F1.

The 2024 Constructors’ Championship could be a preview of what we will see this season, especially since the first two weekends of 2025 have confirmed the current superiority of the Woking team. Will the competition be able to respond as the papaya team did in 2023? For Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, the upcoming races will already be decisive.

Helmut Marko’s words
“We need to quickly introduce updates that really work,” he commented to Kleine Zeitung. “To win the world championship, these improvements must definitely happen in the next five races, otherwise, it will be too late.”

“McLaren dominates like we did in 2023. They have a car that works in all conditions, with any weather and on any track,” he added. “In China, for the first time, it showed some weaknesses, especially with Lando Norris. However, they are currently the absolute favorites with two strong drivers and a fast car.” – the Red Bull advisor concluded ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.