Red Bull chief: Alonso made Honda engine look bad

Red Bull boss Helmut Marko has blasted Fernando Alonso and his criticism of the Honda engine, believing that the Spaniard constant negative opinions dashed the brands' popularity during their failed relationship with McLaren.

Speaking to Auto, Motor und Sport, Marko referenced the future role of Honda in Red Bull's activities, and is keen to monitor how their engine performs inside the Toro Rosso car in 2018.

He is hoping the engine lives up to his expectations, and thinks that if things go well, it is not outwith the realms of possibility that Honda could provide for the Red Bull team proper in the future.

He said: "Honda is very active and has already found something. Maybe they'll manage to be on the level of Renault with the second engine. Honda had to compromise because of the chassis specification from McLaren.

"They could not develop freely and were pretty limited. Alonso has did everything to make the engine look bad."

Marko also added that, as in 2017, Mercedes have unquestionably set the benchmark and Red Bull will need to significantly up their game, particularly in qualifying, in order to sufficiently compete.

He stated: "The worst thing is their qualifying mode. They are always ahead in qualifying and you cannot overtake on most tracks. And in the race they sometimes use significantly less fuel.

"Mercedes' overall package is clearly ahead in terms of driveability, performance, consumption and energy deployment."