Ferrari's initial clear advantage over Red Bull this year has taken a 180-degree turn, with the energy drink team opening up an 80-point lead after the Azerbaijan GP.
Ferrari's initial clear advantage over Red Bull this year has taken a 180-degree turn, with the energy drink team opening up an 80-point lead after the Azerbaijan GP.
In addition, world champion Max Verstappen is now 34 points ahead of his biggest rival Charles Leclerc in the drivers' championship. The Monegasque was also overtaken by Sergio Perez and dropped to third.
"Ferrari has now suffered two technical faults and so have we, so we have a draw," Helmut Marko said.
"However, you can see what is possible with consistency, as is the case with George Russell. He is not fast, but he is more consistent and so he is not far behind in the points."
The Austrian even expressed some sympathy regarding Ferrari's reliability crisis.
"We want a fair fight, but Leclerc is already on his third engine," Marko told . "All this is not very good for Ferrari, considering the punishments on the grid, and the season is still at the beginning."
Finally, although Perez is second in the championship just 21 points behind Verstappen, Marko said that doesn't mean the race is perfectly even.
"We don't have anything on paper about that," he commented, referring to suggestions that the Mexican is only the second driver. "But looking at the performance, there is a difference between them and Max showed that on the track."