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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