Marko: Red Bull still has the quickest car - MotorSportsTalk

Outspoken Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko still believes that the team has the quickest car on the grid, and that the deficit to pace-setters Mercedes is only down to the Renault engine being uses.

The champion team endured a disastrous winter testing period as drivers Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were restricted by multiple engine failures, and this extended into the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as Vettel retired from the race after just five laps. However, with Red Bull’s drivers qualifying second and fifth for today’s Malaysian Grand Prix, Marko believes that this proves the team is still capable of winning both titles.

“If you take only the chassis, we are absolutely at the top,” Marko told the official Formula 1 website. “The ‘sick’ part is still the engine, the powertrain. Take for example the situation in FP2 yesterday; we still ran the mapping from Melbourne because the next development step is not working in the way that using it would be an advantage.

“We would be at the top again,” he added when asked to disregard the engine difference. “But right now with a deficit of around 80 horsepower that’s simply not possible.”

Marko is notorious for his honest approach and evident bias towards Sebastian Vettel, which became particularly clear during the inter-team battle with Mark Webber last year. When asked about the current battle with the FIA concerning Daniel Ricciardo’s disqualification from the last race in Australia, he suggested that Mercedes has been working against Red Bull and that many other teams are also dissatisfied with the fuel sensors being used.

“The fact is that this device not only produced fluctuating results in our case, but also for other teams,” Marko explained. “But Mercedes is stonewalling the matter. Generally speaking it is not an adequate tool to control what in itself is a questionable rule.

“You have 100 kilos of fuel to do your race, and we have proven that we didn’t exceed that in Melbourne. So every team should be free in how it uses those 100 kilos. What we have now is too complicated. No fan understands what this is all about.”

The Malaysian Grand Prix is live on NBCSN and Live Extra from 3:30am ET on Sunday. For more information, click here.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”