Red Bull 'assumes' Hamilton will receive second engine penalty
Nov.4 - Dr Helmut Marko is crossing his fingers that technical trouble strikes for Lewis Hamilton over the course of the decisive final five races of 2021.
Mercedes is clearly struggling with engine reliability as it chases down Max Verstappen's title lead, with Red Bull's Marko expecting another grid penalty for the seven time world champion.
"I assume Hamilton will probably get another engine penalty," he told n-tv.
"I don't know whether it will be five or ten places, but that should definitely be in our favour."
Verstappen is currently 12 points ahead, but Marko thinks that will not be enough to avoid a championship finale in Abu Dhabi.
"I think the pressure is psychologically greater for Mercedes," the 78-year-old Austrian said.
"We had a good 30 points lead at the summer break. Then we had our failures in Silverstone, Budapest and Baku, but in terms of kilometres led and victories, our marginal lead should be bigger.
"We still have to win two races, that's clear," Marko acknowledged. "If we win the next two, I would rate it as 60 percent for Verstappen, 40 percent for Hamilton.
"I think if both of them cross the finish line, the decision will be made in the last race. But the whole picture is drastically different if there is a breakdown - an accident or a technical one.
"But as our self confidence increases, the nervousness increases at Mercedes. I think that is the basic trend," he said.
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"Dr Helmut Marko is crossing his fingers that technical trouble strikes for Lewis Hamilton over the course of the decisive final five races of 2021."
Hey doc, how about concentrating on your guy being faster and put aside the idea of a tech problem or a Prost/Senna takeout finale.
Apparently , Amazon reports that Red Bull have been ordering copies of the dvds where senna and prost danced, now I wonder why that is ?
People & their assumptions - Max's engine is more used, so why not the same thinking about him? Slightly hypocritical.
Mostly agree Jere, but VER has 3 complete PU's available and HAM has 2 with some iffy parts. Confusing, but I believe that's accurate. Never count out MB, but RB does have an advantage in PU availability. Hate to see WDC's or WCC's decided on engine availability.
ROR, or a takeout. I'm sure I saw an interview with Toto with him saying that. There are so many F1 fb groups now, that I can't remember where I watched the interview.
I hope the last five races will end fair for both drivers till the end they will fight that's the best scenario.
No five sec here and there
Just like Austin
Great
a take out?, ill have a singapore chow mein please, with extra prawn crackers.
Linda, ignorance re British slang, what is a "takeout"? I don't know whether to feel hugged or dissed.
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