Red Bull Boss says Perez still too weak up till now
May 27 - Sergio Perez is a "decisive factor" in Red Bull's push to win the 2021 world championship, according to top team official Dr Helmut Marko.
79-year-old Austrian Marko was most directly responsible for ousting Alex Albon and replacing him with the experienced Sergio Perez for this season.
However, Mexican Perez has also struggled to match up to Max Verstappen, and Marko told Sport Bild that could be the "decisive factor" in the title chase.
"He's just been too weak in qualifying so far," Marko said.
"If he was on par with Bottas, I don't think Mercedes would have been able to do a two-stop strategy in Barcelona. That's our biggest handicap at the moment," he insisted.
Toto Wolff said at Monaco that Mercedes is now 90 percent focused on designing a car for the all-new 2022 regulations - but new 2021 championship leader Red Bull is still pushing hard on its own current car.
"We now see our chance to fight back," said Marko when asked about Mercedes' utter dominance of the sport since 2014.
"We will mobilise all of our reserves and possibilities to do that."
While Perez has disappointed Marko, he is more than happy with Dutchman and championship leader Verstappen.
"He has learned that the most important thing is the overall package - that you don't explode if something goes wrong or you aren't that fast," he said.
"But it's a long season and I hope that he has more reserves than Hamilton, who has done some unbelievably good races so far."
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New team and consistent 4th and 5th's from the get go, excluding the one race with a mechanical fault. So not too bad and certainly better than Albon did in 2020. Problem is Max is so good.
Agreed. Perez doing much better than Vettel or Alonso, but not as good as Sainz in their new cars. Baku should be a great race!
I hate this, awardguy, but you are spot on. Checo has never been a great quali guy and the RB is obviously built for VER. It really is the team's responsibility to support TWO drivers if they expect race strategy options. I hope that PER is getting big bucks to offset his Marko ulcers.
Gasly seems to be a sensible replacement if Perez doesn't improve significantly. Perez has been in F1 long enough to not take this long to get up to speed and consistent. Gasly is a free man by year end so RB better start talks. At the end of the day, this is a business.
PER wouldn't go to AT hed rather retire, he i think said he would if he didn't get the RB drive so it wouldn't/couldn't be a driver swop as sharp as gasly looks this yr IMO .Sensible comments for once on here ..... , it is a business yes egos arent important and the WCC is worth a lot of $$$$
red bull should put their best drivers in .thats gasley on current form and kick mercedes ass
Not positive, but I believe that I remember both Marko and Horner suggesting that GAS is not part of RB's future. He should by now know that #2 at RB is a burial ground and be looking for alternatives.
Right. Marko may be full of bull (not Red Bull). but he won't bri,g Gasly up again for a while... If ever
Ricciardo was #2 when he joined RB till he upstaged Vettel. So burial ground analogy is sensational.
And then Verstappen upstaged Riccardo i believe
More important, RIC was treated poorly as are all RB #2's. Thus the "burial ground" comment.
Off topic , but VB is the big loser , if he loses his seat , ther arent any good seats for him except poss SV at aston, and even thats unlikely
Jax, I'm going to assume that you mean the 'very good indeed; very impressive or attractive' definition of sensational. LOL
Ror always risky to assume anything where Jax is concerned i have found lol
So good, better, best. Ric frustrates Vet, Max does it to Ric. That's how it goes. Nothing to do with being a burial ground. If Gasly goes to RB and is competitive all he has to do is bide his time till Hammer retires and Merc signs Max my Fly friend.
If Gasly is competitive at RB ?........ thats the Issue !!, the Problem is... when MB sign Max and they will, where is RB next Supertalent coming from ?
And your sidekick is right Old fella as it wasn't a compliment Lol.
I suspect Perez will either start doing much better in the Red Bull, or take his Mexican sponsorship $$ to IndyCar, where the playing field is far more even.