---
title: "Marko: Summer break will make Vettel ‘stronger’"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/08/17/marko-summer-break-will-make-vettel-stronger/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Kyran Gibbons"
section: "F1 News"
published: "2017-08-17T19:28:15Z"
modified: "2017-08-17T19:28:15Z"
---

# Marko: Summer break will make Vettel ‘stronger’

Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko has suggested that Sebastian Vettel will come back stronger following Formula 1’s summer break, and is therefore the favourite to claim the drivers’ championship title.

After claiming four wins in the first half of the season, Vettel currently leads Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by 14 points at the head of the championship.

The four-time champion – who has never lost a title battle in which he has led – is vying for his first crown with Ferrari, with his previous four championships earned during his time at Red Bull.

Head of the Red Bull driver programme for those title winning years was Dr Helmut Marko, who has tipped his former protege for top honours this year.

“I believe in Vettel, because I know his mental strength – and Ferrari has raised its game,” he stated in an interview for the [official F1 website](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/interviews/2017/8/seb-will-be-stronger-in-second-half-of-17---helmut-marko-q-a.html).

“Silverstone, I would say, was an exception – Ferrari was clearly the stronger car in the first half of the season and only due to various circumstances could they not materialize all their chances.

Marko also noted the mental strength that Vettel demonstrated during his title years at Red Bull. “What is fact is that we have been 60 points behind before the summer break – and still won the title with him.

“Seb will use this summer break to come back even stronger. That’s how I know him.”

History does dictate that Vettel performs better in the second half of the season compared with the first.

In 2013, the German won all nine races after the summer shut-down to set a new record for consecutive race victories and seal the championship title in emphatic fashion with three races to spare.