Red Bull rubbing hands ahead of Formula 1 weekend in Azerbaijan. For the first time since the premiere of the Grand Prix on the Caspian Sea, the “Bulls” believe they are favorites on the Baku City Circuit. And for a reason, as “Bullen” Eminence Helmut Marko explains in an interview with RTL / ntv.
Red Bull has twice won the race on the street circuit in Baku. In 2017, Daniel Ricciardo duped Mercedes, in the previous year Sergio Pérez used a big chock from Lewis Hamilton to win. But: Actually, the track in Azerbaijan’s capital has been Silver Arrow territory since its premiere in 2016, although Ferrari and Sebsatian Vettel were sometimes involved. Red Bull usually only played third fiddle because Mercedes and Ferrari simply had the stronger power unit in the rear and raced away from the “bulls” on the long straight.
It’s completely different this year, emphasizes Marko. In 2022, the chief advisor to the team sees Red Bull as the favorite “because of the very long straights”. The Austrian addresses the 2.2-kilometre straight that leads to the start/finish point and invites to hot slipstream duels and daring overtaking maneuvers in the narrow kink at the end of the full-throttle passage.
Advantage Red Bull, but also advantage Ferrari
“For the first time since the hybrid era, we have a car that is one of the absolutely fastest on the straight, before we were actually always the slowest,” says Marko happily, using the races in Saudi Arabia and Miami for empirical evidence. “That was an advantage at the races in Jeddah and also in Miami, which allowed us to beat Ferrari because of the higher top speed.” Praise for the Honda engine, which Red Bull took over after the Japanese left Formula 1 at the end of the previous season.
However, Marko also knows about the strengths of the red competition from Maranello. “Ferrari is better than us in tighter corners,” admits Marko. And there are quite a few of those in Baku, especially the entrance to the old town with the narrowest chicane (eight meters) on the racing calendar.
But: At Red Bull, they fully rely on the power factor, on Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez getting enough time in the high-speed section to keep Ferrari and Charles Leclerc in check in the slow corners. “I hope that we can use our advantages again,” said Marko: “We now want to strike on our own.” Because: At the past Grands Prix in Spain and Monaco, the “bulls” only dusted off the victories because Ferrari made a mistake.