Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko reflected on the first day of pre-season testing by saying he ‘expected more’ from Ferrari.
All eyes were on the Scuderia as Lewis Hamilton was properly unleashed in their 2025 car for the first time. But the seven-time world champion did not exactly pull up trees on his debut, posting the 13th-fastest lap time overall, which was nearly a second behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
It promises to be a tight battle between Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari this season. And although Hamilton was a fair way off the pace, Leclerc was fourth fastest on day one, with team boss Fred Vasseur sure to be feeling relatively positive.
But Marko still took his chance to crank up the mind games with next month’s Australian Grand Prix rapidly closing in.
“I think in the beginning, in the morning, the wind was trickier, especially yesterday,” the 81-year-old told GP Blog. “The wind was really tricky. But that’s testing. However, it is much colder, so maybe that is why Mercedes is so fast. McLaren was very consistent and also very fast.
“Ferrari was a little disappointing because we expected more from them. However, there are still two more [test] days, so we will see.”
Red Bull’s star driver Max Verstappen, of whom Marko is a long-serving mentor, faces a tough fight to make it five world titles on the spin this year. The Dutchman ended up third fastest behind Lando Norris and George Russell, who will both fancy a crack at the Drivers’ Championship.
But Marko maintains that Red Bull are in a healthy spot in terms of long-term race pace. “All the problems we had last year, I think they are much better now or at least fixed,” he explained.
“[Verstappen] says the car is better put together. When they make changes, the car responds in the right way. During his fastest lap, he had a small wobble. However, the long-runs we saw were very impressive.”
While fans and analysts are already poring over the testing lap times from day one, Verstappen has urged them to take the numbers with a pinch of salt.
“We are constantly learning and trying different things,” he said. “We will continue to do that. It’s not about driving the perfect lap, but about working on our test program and learning in which direction we need to develop the car to get it under control.”
