Marko accuses Mercedes and Ferrari of ‘collusion’

· by · in Breaking News. ·

Breaking

The collapse of the F1 Red Bull Racing dynasty has been swifter than its ascent to the top of the elite single seater racing series. Their second place in the constructors championship last year masked somewhat the decline of the team from Milton Keynes as Williams failed to make the most of their Mercedes engine and finished a distant third behind the former world champions.

However, a glance at the 2015 constructor table reveals the harsh reality facing the purpled liveried Red Bull cars this year.

  • Mercedes 159 pts
  • Ferrari 107 pts
  • Williams 61 pts
  • Red Bull 23 pts
  • Sauber 19 pts
  • Lotus 12 pts
  • Toro Rosso 11pts
  • Force India 11pts
  • MacHonda 0 pts
  • Manor F1 0 pts

Red Bull are truly a distant midfield team who could easily have been overtaken by Sauber following the race in Bahrain.

The petulance demonstrated by their leaders’ threats to quit the sport unless regulations are altered in Red Bull Renault’s favour has angered many F1 fans and revealed the true motives of the marketing company that created the racing brand.

Add to this the continual lambasting of their quadruple world champion engine partner by Christian Horner and Helmut Marko and appears impossible that the reputation of this Formula One team could not have sunk lower.

Then again…

Helmut Marko is now complaining there is a conspiracy afoot. “I’m sure that Mercedes have helped Ferrari,” the Red Bull boss tells Bild. “and we all know why.”

The allegation is that Mercedes have provided Ferrari with information on how to improve their engine in return for support in the F1 strategy group to resist the Red Bull and Ecclestone demands that there be a return to the V8 engines.

Further, it is alleged that Mercedes dominance in 2014 was having a negative effect on the sport. So a Ferrari team appearing to challenge the reining world champions removes the predictability of races and will hopefully stem the flow of F1 fans heading to the beach on Sunday afternoons – instead keeping them glued to their pay-per-view TV’s.

Of course this apparent collusion will see Ferrari win more races but Mercedes will turn it on again later in the year when they deploy their engine development tokens.

TJ13 recently described Red Bull as the ‘Nouveau Riche’ of Formula One, a label clearly embraced by Red Bull as they now accuse ‘the establishment’ of plotting their downfall in secret.

All we know as the fans, is that given the state of play in the engines used count, Red Bull are facing an uphill battle to stay ahead of Sauber, Lotus, Toro Rosso and even Force India.

And if MacHonda get their revolutionary new engine design under control, there will just be Manor F1 left to chase down the seemingly fatally wounded prey of the Matadors.

49 responses to “Marko accuses Mercedes and Ferrari of ‘collusion’”

    • Yeah, these are pretty shocking allegations, but the source is Ralf Bach.

      Though Helmut has said some stupid things in the past, this seems to be a step beyond.

      Which raises some questions…

      1st) Is this story true? That is to say, did Marko actually say this? The source of this story is Ralf Bach. Has he written mistaken stories, or bogus stories? (Is Bild a reliable source of news?)

      2nd) Related note, has Helmut confirmed (or denied) these alleged remarks to Bild / Sport Bild?

      This story has been out for a full day now.

      3rd) Has there been any response by anyone else such as someone associated with Ferrari, or the Mercedes team, or other F1 journalists? (Or does everyone else think this is just bogus?)

      • The most unreliable source isn’t going to publish fake quotes – they will be refuted in no time.

        This is all part of Bernie’s engine agenda – but he’s now realised Ferrari are no longer playing ball and asking for change as they once were.

        So its time to stir up some anti Ferrari sentiment.

        Red Bull are now a lone voice in the F1 strategy group amongst the rest of the teams – and the FIA ain’t supporting Ecclestone’s return to the V8 era agenda.

        • OK, I see your point.

          If Marko did say those things, it is a fairly obvious hit job. But I suppose it will work in that some folks will be fooled, or drawn down that path.

          I expect that we may soon see how the Marlboro Man operates in this piranha club arena.

  2. “Further, it is alleged that Mercedes dominance in 2014 was having a negative effect on the sport. ”

    Brb. Clutching my stomach so hard while laughing that I need to be admitted into hospital to relieve the pain.

    • Has anyone ever done it so vociferously as they have? There’s nothing bias about the article, it’s all out there for everyone to see how they’ve acted.

    • Nah… I disagree. This article is not biased as we are talking about what’s currently happening in 2015. Let’s say for example that we were to talk about F1 years gone by; The constant threats from RBR can be fairly classified as childish (i’m not playing with you anymore because i cannot have my way). Never have we seen this level of unsportsmanlike behaviour from such a huge brand. YES, in the past we’ve had other manufactures moan about the rules when they weren’t performing, but not on such a frequent and aggressive manner.

      I will however like some more information on this article… Merc and Ferrari’s response etc. I do not think that Marko will be so careless as to make such accusations without some solid evidence… It would simply be suicidal.

      I have said it before elsewhere; the rate at which Ferrari has closed down on Mercedes since the Australian GP does indeed appear to be artificial…. like there’s more to it than meets the eye. The dominance that MB showed in Melbourne compared to that of Malaysia (after the complaints of a boring race and the dominance of Mercedes) … is…. fishy. HA!

      • “I have said it before elsewhere; the rate at which Ferrari has closed down on Mercedes since the Australian GP does indeed appear to be artificial…. like there’s more to it than meets the eye.”

        May it be that we’re seeing the Leprechaun effect finally kicking in for good…

      • the rate at which Ferrari has closed down on Mercedes since the Australian GP does indeed appear to be artificial…

        Why ?
        Australia is often anomalous in terms of performance relative to the rest of the season, and also Ferrari were running a radically different engine in anger for the first time, so it’s hardly surprising that it would show outsize improvement at the next race.

        • And only Vettel was able to display his pace somewhat. But even he was in Massa ‘s dirty air for 40% of the race. Raikkonen has commented that he felt Ferrari could have finished around 10 sec behind Merc if they had driven a clean race..

  5. Good riddance to Red Bull with that sort of attitude. It’s a tremendous insult to the smaller teams who have spent some time at the bottom (and continue to do so) but still fight like mad to remain in the sport, despite the bad deal they have in terms of cash distribution. Williams sunk very low and I don’t recall them threatening to quit other than possibly indicating they might have to fold due to financial reasons. I do recall Ferrari and Benetton issuing quit threats some time ago (as has Alonso and Schumacher if memory serves) but they never followed through (though of course Renault took over Benetton and Schu retired only to return) and it was just as distasteful as Red Bull. It’s also a tremendous insult to the staff at Red Bull, from the drivers on down. I’m sure the team is full of dedicated racers who must be wondering why their management is being so childish (though it’s like that perhaps they’ve been working all along despite management).

    if they do exit, I hope their staff and drivers can find other good places to go. Ricciardo and Verstappen would certainly have some interest from others.

  6. So when Renault finally get on top of their issues it will certainly have been because of help from Mercedes.

  7. Jeez, where do I start with this? Someone finally has enough guts to call BS on the white-shoe gentleman’s club conspiring to “take back” F1 and the one website that I thought would have seen the light does goes and slams the messenger! Marko is the harbinger of truth here. He’s a frood who always knows where his towel is and you treat him like a fool. Unknblvbl!

    It’s completely obvious there’s a plan to shaft RBR, a plan to get them out of the sport, a plan driven by aging, moneyed, faceless men intent on reclaiming their sport from these nouveau riche, loud, brash kids with their awful fizzy drinks.

    Why do you think LdM and Domenicali were shot last year? Huh?? They screwed up the plan by building a dog of an engine. The apparently ‘normal’ migration of engineering talent from MB to Ferrari over the last year was the fix with inbuilt plausible deniability. The plan is back on track.

    Williams were lucky to escape consequences after failing to shut RBR out of second in the WCC last year. They were tapped on the shoulder and asked to step up once it was clear that Ferrari had dropped the ball, but they fell short. Williams’ mysterious drop in relative pace this year is because they have been demoted to merely rear-gunning for MB & Ferrari as punishment for last year’s faux pas.

    Why do you think the “cleaner” was put through Caterham? Huh?? To further isolate RBR as the sole customer of Renault with their mysteriously sh!tty PU, obviously.

    Why do you think the deal for STR to change to Renault engines happened when it did? Huh? Why did it go so smoothly? Huh?? A French company supplying engines to an Italy-based team?? Be serious! Connect the dots people!

    Ron Dennis is copping a fair bit of ribbing at the club these days. Never one for a simple solution, he had to convince Honda to re-enter F1 so McLaren could drop their MB PU contract so that Lotus could drop their Renault contract leaving RB the only ones tied to Renault. I expect to see MB engineers applying for newly-created roles at Honda soon – and so Honda “take a big step forward” next year. Yeah, right!

    So where are Renault in all this? The company that pioneered the use of turbo technology in F1. The company who powered four straight WCC-winning cars. Surely there’s something fishy about them building such a boat anchor for RBR? Really?? Beyond credible.

    Renault obviously drew the short straw at the Bilderberg Group meeting where this plan was laid out. They’re now paying a very high price with the damage to their reputation. No doubt, there will be appropriate reparations made once the project is complete.

    The kicker:

    In responding to RB’s entirely justifiable complaints about the performance of Renault’s PU, Cyril Abiteboul, ever the joker, couldn’t stop himself from throwing in a double entendre for his co-conspirators down at the club with the funny handshake.

    “It’s not just the engine!”

    Yeah, we know Cyril, it’s way bigger than that.

    • @RogerD.. I read every word of what you had to say.

      1st thing… Don’t shoot the messenger here as like @thejudge13 said, this is the only English site reporting this. I think its safer and fairer for this story to be reported in this manner as if it said for sure that what Marko is saying is true, then thejudge will have to be able to back it up with evidence. At the moment, it’s all speculative.

      2nd thing… I respect your views and what you are saying as sometimes when something looks too good to be true… it most likely is. Basically what i’m saying is, your powers of observation may be correct. I have wondered before why it is so easy for engineers to move teams ie isn’t there a clause in their contract to stop them from copying their former employer’s secrets/tech???

      What i want to know though… is… why would the FIA/FOM or whosoever want RBR out of Formula 1?? Believe it or not, they have a huge fan-base. I am not a RBR fan… But i don’t think that it makes sense pushing them out. But i will also admit, i know nothing of the internal politics of F1

      • It is forbidden to take drawings and photos with you to an other team but things you have in your head can’t be forbidden. Or am I wrong. how the he’ll are they going to control that? You are talking about smart people. And if they design something at one place they should be able to reproduce this design else where without any help…

    • You left out the Tri-Lateral Committee, the Masons, the Bohemian Grovers, The Scientologists, and They Who Are So Secret I Dare not Even Think Their Name.

    • I’m forced either to applaud a sustained exercise in irony, or conclude you’ve gone as fruit-loop as Marko.

      “Harbinger of truth” was particularly choice.
      🙂

    • Roger, your comments are always interesting and sharp. I have read your comment twice and am, shall we say, wondering if your account was hacked.

      But because it’s you, Roger, and you have solid form in cutting right to the heart of things, I will consider your theory again as I shower tonight…

      Yes, that’s right Roger; there will be someone, somewhere, thinking of you whilst in the shower. Surely that makes all this worthwhile.

      • I love an explicit application of confirmation bias – you can convince yourself of anything (seriously) 😉

        WTF, !¿WTF¡? ? I feel dirty about you pondering my “theory” in the shower. Erk…

    • Indeed they did – along with a number of others.

      Yet Daniel Casanova is the interesting one. From Lotus – a simulator specialist – and now the Ferrari is the kindest on its tyres.

  9. I dig the insight here. I get I are mostly stoopid over here, but I do enjoy a good verbal discussion. I have tried to watch f1 from when I was young. Here in the U.S. we had little options and all that was shown is Monico.

    I managed to get Speed Channel early and f1 coverage was decent. Back then I had to watch delayed, but could at least see the race. With much commercials.

    We in the states have always had to deal with commercials and this really troubles me. These days we are paying for channels and I believe the payment should allow for uninterrupted coverage.

    • @DudeTuna…. Agreed… lol. Speed really suck… there is simply too many commercials. In the UK, SkysportsF1 is much better…. You should be able to access it from there in the US

  10. I dont think the Ferrari resurgence is that much of a shock, in Alonso’s hand at least, last years car looked pretty handy through the corners, now its got a decent engine, is it really that bigger surprise?

    Along the lines of engines and cost, I was watching a GP2 race, and the cars looked just as quick, the in cockpit view was awesome, the drivers were really working. So 2 things occurred to me, i don’t actually care what engine they run, it can be a scalectrix motor for all i care and i suspect most casual viewers feel the same. Dont get me wrong these are impressive bits of kit, and the geek in me takes an interest, but it makes no difference to my enjoyment of the racing.

    Secondly in what world can it be right that to run a GP2 car for a season, costs a couple of million, and I think the fastest one would actually on lap time make it on to the F1 grid, but for Redbull to go few seconds faster, it cost £400 million. That just can’t be right, it must be possible for F1 to do this with a budget cap of say £70 million and still put on a decent show.

  11. Another desperate tj rb hate article. RBs deficit to ferrari is purely down to the engine, which they have no control over. Yep, ric on 4th ice already.

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