After the opening Grand Prix of the 2026 Formula 1 season held in Melbourne, former Red Bull executive Helmut Marko shared his assessment of the on-track action, downplaying and effectively “snubbing” the performance delivered by the Ferrari SF-26. According to the Austrian, the Maranello-based team is not the favourite to challenge Mercedes, which he still considers the benchmark and the team to beat at this early stage of the campaign.
The new regulations fail to convince… not even Helmut Marko
Criticism surrounding this new regulatory cycle has become increasingly vocal following the first race of the year. From overtakes that many observers have described as little more than “simple position swaps,” to the evident issues related to super clipping and energy management during qualifying, there are only a few who appear fully satisfied with the current situation.
Among the critics is also Helmut Marko, who spoke to the German outlet Sport.de, emphasizing the need for patience before drawing definitive conclusions. “The opening laps of the Grand Prix were actually spectacular. We need to give these new rules some time, even though I hope we will soon go back to talking about drivers rather than software. We didn’t really see overtakes because a driver braked later or executed a better-prepared move by maximizing corner exit,” he explained.
Ferrari as Mercedes’ main rival? Only for now…
Marko was also particularly critical of Ferrari, which he does not view as Mercedes’ direct rival over the course of the season. “Ferrari creates disruption and shuffles the cards at the start thanks to a smaller turbo; without this factor, we wouldn’t even have had such an exciting and closely fought opening phase of the race. However, I don’t believe the hierarchy will change in the upcoming races. I think the real rival is McLaren: they have the same Mercedes engine, and once they solve their software and programming issues, they could become the closest team,” he stated.
Mercedes, in his view, remains the strongest and extremely difficult to beat. “We saw just how strong Mercedes is right now thanks to Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the first part of the race. After dropping to seventh position, he found himself in clean air, and within just a few laps he was already up to second place, lapping essentially one second faster than his rivals. The W17 cars are running as if they are on rails,” Marko concluded.
