Reason for optimism at Red Bull before Imola: 'Absolutely able to win'

Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen have fallen well behind in the championship, but Helmut Marko believes the title isn't yet gone. With Sebastian Vettel at the wheel, he once bridged a larger gap before.

After three races, Red Bull Racing has managed to add a pole position, a podium and a victory to its list of honours, but that is offset by three retirements. The RB18 of Verstappen and Sergio Perez is fast, but hasn't been reliable so far. As a result, Verstappen is already 46 points behind Charles Leclerc in the world championship and Red Bull is already 49 points behind Ferrari.

However, with the new regulations and a long season of 20 more races ahead, Marko is not that worried. He says to the German RTL that a similar scenario happened in 2010: "Then we were 44 points behind Fernando Alonso in the summer break with Vettel, but were still able to turn it around," the Austrian says of the season in which Vettel surprisingly became world champion in the final race.

Again, Marko remains surprisingly optimistic and that is mainly because of the RB18 designed by Adrian Newey. Although not always reliable, the car is very fast. "The package is competitive and with the right setup that car is absolutely capable of winning," the Red Bull advisor concluded.