Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko says he’s expecting the 2013 championship to boil down to another fight between Red Bull and the ‘political’ Fernando Alonso.
The outspoken Austrian, speaking during Sebastian Vettel’s celebratory demo in Graz at the weekend, accused Alonso of being ‘political’ when it suits him.
“He seems to have problems if he doesn’t win [the title],” the 69-year-old said. “When he doesn’t win, then he develops incredible political skills.”
Alonso recently stated that he wasn’t racing Vettel, but RB8 designer Adrian Newey. In response, Marko highlighted the fact that the German repeatedly beats team-mate Mark Webber, therefore proving his worth.
“Our Spanish adversary does not seem quite up to date with his knowledge of the quality of Vettel,” he added. “Yes, Vettel races in a Newey car, but [Alonso] seems to have missed that we put two of them [cars on the grid] at the start and, at the end, it is always Vettel who wins.”
He fully expects Vettel and Alonso to be locked in another championship battle given the ‘significant weakening’ of McLaren following Lewis Hamilton’s departure.
“We assume that we will have a competitive car, so why should things change so much? We have the same team, McLaren has been weakened significantly by the departure of Hamilton, so that leaves only Ferrari. It will surely be a tough fight with them again,” he concluded.
