Red Bull’s Helmut Marko quizzed about “alarm bells” at Mercedes

Helmut Marko has commented on the ongoing struggles at rivals Mercedes.

The Red Bull advisor has described his own surprise to see the once-dominant Mercedes fail to deliver a winning car for the third season in a row.

The W15 currently languishes behind Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren.

Marko was asked by OE24: “As an outsider you get the feeling that Mercedes are still getting worse. Shouldn't all alarm bells be ringing?”

He replied: “They probably do anyway.

“What irritates me so much is that the car is really fast at times, and at times it runs at absolute peak times.

“Then I think: ‘Look, now they get it!’

“But that's always just a flash in the pan.”

Mercedes’ highs and lows were summed up last weekend in China.

Lewis Hamilton emerged from Friday’s qualifying for the sprint race insisting that the W15 “came alive” after his brilliant session in wet conditions.

Hamilton then claimed an encouraging P2 in the sprint race behind Max Verstappen.

But he made an error in qualifying for the grand prix, and explained “massive changes” in set-up from his earlier sessions.

Hamilton battled from 18th on the starting grid to P9 in a Chinese Grand Prix to forget.

“It doesn’t happen overnight that you slump like this,” Marko said.

“What is alarming is that they have not been competitive for the third season now.”

The tipping point was the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when Hamilton lost out on a record eighth title and Verstappen won his first for Red Bull.

Red Bull and Verstappen have dominated since, and the champion is on course for a fourth title in a row this year.

Hamilton, meanwhile, is battling through his final year at Mercedes before going to Ferrari.