“At the same level as Verstappen”- Helmut Marko’s judgement on Sergio Perez after his first race for Red Bull in Bahrain last weekend.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez compelled fans with his exhilarating performance at Bahrain to vote him as the driver of the day, as he finished P5 from the pit-lane start, which is technically starting from the last.
Helmut Marko is impressed by his new recruitment and has placed him at par with Max Verstappen while drawing a comparison between their race day pace.
“The speed in the race is at the same level as Verstappen. When he was in clean air, he set the same times. So far, so good. Unfortunately, it was not like that in qualifying,” he said in statements to the Formel1 YouTube channel.
“The positive thing was that he lost most of the time in a corner, the 1. Already during the preseason tests, it was like that. In sector 3, he was faster than Max on average.”
“The only problem is that you have to get the whole lap. We are convinced that he will be very close to Max also in qualifying,” he said.
We are not going to burn a talent like Yuki Tsunoda
The Japanese sensation Yuki Tsunoda made an incredible start to his career as he bagged his first points on his debut, but Marko wants to be patient with Tsunoda.
“Let’s wait and see. We had the first of 23 races. Let’s see how it develops. We have an incredible diamond in the rough in Yuki. We are not going to burn it. We will see its evolution and make our decisions promptly,” he said to finish.
Now, F1’s entourage is travelling to Europe after a prolonged stay in the middle-east; the next race will be in Imola, where Red Bull eyes to bag a win.
