Red Bull is turning up the psychological warfare ahead of the final and decisive phase of its increasingly tense championship battle with McLaren.
Dr Helmut Marko headed into the US GP weekend by questioning Lando Norris’ "mental" weaknesses, hot on the heels of both Red Bull and McLaren trading technical barbs about flexible wings and adjustable ’T-trays’.
And the Red Bull advisor, 81, has now told Osterreich newspaper that he thinks McLaren may have spoiled Norris’ chances of running down Max Verstappen’s 52 point lead over the remaining six grands prix of 2024.
"McLaren is consistently fast," said Marko. "But they waited too long to make a clear commitment to Norris."
And on the very same topic of the driver hierarchy at McLaren, Verstappen cheekily advised Oscar Piastri to strongly consider ignoring any team orders calls.
"For me, he (Piastri) is absolutely not a number 2 driver and, if I were him, I would never accept it," the Dutchman said in Austin.
"He is a great driver who doesn’t deserve to have to give up victories and positions to play a second-rate role just because he is asked to."
F1 legend Gerhard Berger, a traditional ally of the Red Bull family, told Kronen Zeitung newspaper that he believes McLaren has a "big advantage" over Red Bull because of its superior driver lineup made up of "two number 1s".
"But because of that, they’ve been taking points away from each other in the championship. If they want to prevent Verstappen from defending his title, they have to put everything on Norris now.
"I think it will be very close in the end, but I think will Max will be able to bring it across the finish line."
Marko said Red Bull engineers are also "optimistic" that the new car parts in Austin will work.
Verstappen, however, warned that time has been tight to put the Austin package together.
"I haven’t tried them out in the simulator," he admitted, "so it’s difficult to say how it will feel on the track. And just 60 minutes of practice here is tricky.
"But I’m not thinking too much about it all yet in terms of successfully defending or losing the title. If the improvements work, I’ll be in good spirits, and if they don’t, I think it will be very difficult for us.
"For me, it’s 50-50. And I think every race from now on is decisive. Of course I want to win it in the end, but we need to be competitive enough for that. It’s that simple.
"Of course I want to win, but if we don’t make it, it’s not a great tragedy for me."