“You need team spirit and cohesion”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko believes Aston Martin needs to understand the importance of the team’s game in F1. The Austrian suggested that poaching key staff is not the only key to succeeding as a team.

Speaking in an interview with F1 Insider, Marko said:

“My long-distance observation [on Aston Martin] is that it’s still a team sport. You need team spirit and cohesion. That’s why we were able to keep our key people on board for a very long time, despite many attempts to poach them. Even though some attempts by Aston Martin to poach us were successful. But it’s no use just poaching individual people and then thinking you’ve succeeded.”

The Silverstone outfit has poached the Red Bull F1 team’s key aerodynamic chief Dan Fallows, whom the Milton Keynes team was keen on retaining. Red Bull, however, had dragged their former engineer to court due to a conflict over his gardening leave.

On being asked if Aston Martin had poached the wrong staff, Marko simply said:

“I’d rather not comment on that.”

Seeing the Silverstone team struggle at the bottom of the constructors’ standings, Marko believes that they need to be “cohesive” in terms of team dynamics and learn to function as a team. The Austrian advised the Silverstone-based squad that poaching the correct personnel isn’t key to running the team.

Red Bull advisor believes Sebastian Vettel will lose motivation at Aston Martin

Empathizing with their former driver, Helmut Marko revealed that Sebastian Vettel will find it difficult to stay motivated in the Silverstone team with their performance struggles. The Austrian believes the German should write off the current season and focus on the next year, by which time his team would have sorted their performance woes.

Understanding the German champion’s condition on the Silverstone team, Marko said:

“In any case, it hurts the soul to see a four-time world champion in such a situation. He is fighting and struggling to do better. An alternative would be to tick off the season now and move on to next year. But in that case, I don’t think Vettel wants to struggle anymore to help the team.”

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Billionaire Lawrence Stroll’s team has also been criticized by 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve and former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher for the way the team is being managed. In a recent interview, however, their technical chief Andrew Green did feel optimistic about the team’s package and revealed it had potential, which could be good news for its fans.

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