Dr Helmut Marko has conceded McLaren's dominance heading into 2025 but says Red Bull remains unfazed despite trailing in Bahrain's pre-season test.
"The current favourite is clearly McLaren," the 81-year-old Red Bull adviser told RTL in Germany.
"In my opinion, it will be a three-way or four-way battle between McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and us. Although, if you look at the test results, McLaren already has a lead. That was the case in both the short and long runs."
Marko tempered any alarm from the Red Bull camp, though. "We have made progress, but we are two to three tenths behind in the long run," he said. "We absolutely don't have to worry yet, but it would have been nice if our developments and innovations had worked right away.
"We have taken a step—McLaren is just the favourite at the moment." He noted: "Max (Verstappen) did not do a long run on Friday, and on Wednesday we were still at the same level as McLaren in that respect. I would say that on Friday the deficit was about two tenths, because the tyre degradation was also a lot better at McLaren."
Within McLaren, Marko sees a clear hierarchy.
"You have to say that Lando Norris is the favourite," he said. "It is clear that he looked a lot better than (Oscar) Piastri in Bahrain. The main thing is that they can take points from each other and that we profit from that."
Yet he acknowledged Piastri's potential, which Marko thinks is a benefit for Red Bull: "For us, Max is the obvious number 1, but I don't think Piastri will agree to be number 2. This was already evident last season—on certain tracks, he was on the same level, if not faster than Lando."
Marko praised McLaren's edge: "The advantage of McLaren is that they again have a car that is very good with any type of tyre."
