Red Bull ignoring ’background noise’ - Marko

Dr Helmut Marko says he regards any psychological games with Toto Wolff or Mercedes as "background noise".

At Baku, Wolff moved his rhetoric that is normally aimed at Austrian countryman Marko to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, calling him a "windbag".

Marko, 78, thinks it’s simply an effort to disturb Red Bull amid the teams’ head-to-head battle for 2021 spoils.

"We are not going to that level," he told RTL.

"We are absolutely concentrated on the racing. This background noise means nothing, at least to me."

In fact, Marko calls the entire saga over Red Bull’s allegedly overly-flexible rear wing a "storm in a drinking glass".

He says Mercedes is even now complaining about some of Red Bull’s pit equipment, but vowed to keep the team’s focus on beating Mercedes on track.

"If you have a chance like this, you have to use it - and we will use it," said Marko.

"We have all suffered from the dominance of Mercedes for so long."

Marko says Mercedes is now hitting back, revealing that even a "Mercedes customer" - presumably Aston Martin - has recently been making "massive efforts" to "poach" Red Bull staff.

Marko says those efforts failed.

"We are all together as a team with a passion, an excitement and a hunger to win this world title," he said.

"Mercedes always had the advantage of a second in reserve in engine power, but that is no longer the case," Marko continued.

"We put a competitive car on the ground right from the start. Now it’s all about the details."

The result of the "pressure we exert" on Mercedes is "altogether" the reason for Mercedes’ recent mistakes and struggle for performance, Marko claims.

However, he warned that Mercedes should be stronger at Paul Ricard than on the streets of Monaco and Baku, because "two races like that cannot be the benchmark for the whole season".