Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko recently claimed that McLaren have the strongest driver line-up on the current grid. McLaren’s Lando Norris too believes that his partnership with Oscar Piastri is arguably the strongest alongside the Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. While making such a claim, Norris took a jibe at Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
When asked if McLaren can fight for the constructors’ title, the 24-year-old replied (as quoted by formu1a.uno), “We have two drivers, as McLaren, who are up there not making mistakes and getting pretty much everything out of the car every single weekend. Yeah, it’s rare. There’s not many other teams on the grid that have such a thing. So for us, it’s more of what we can do against Ferrari.”
Norris does not believe that Red Bull are in the fight for the constructors’ title, presumably because of Perez’s underperformances. Although the Mexican driver had a decent start to the 2024 season with four podiums after the first five races, his performances in the past two races have been horribly below par.
During both the Monaco and the Canadian Grand Prix, Perez failed to make it even to Q2 as he qualified in P18 [started P16 due to grid penalties] and P16 respectively. As a result of his poor qualifying, he ended up making mistakes during both races that cost him dearly.
For example, in Monaco, he collided with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, resulting in him suffering a DNF. Meanwhile, in Montreal, he spun at turn six and made contact with the barriers, thereby damaging his car’s front wing.
This collision again resulted in him suffering yet another DNF. Since Perez’s form has been so consistent, even Marko claimed that McLaren have the best driver line-up with Norris and Piastri.
Marko gives three reasons why McLaren have the best driver line-up
Marko recently gave an interview where he explained why he believes McLaren have the best driver line-up. Referring to Norris and Piastri, the Austrian said, “They are young and they are hungry. Currently, they get along well and work well together“.
The Woking-based outfit do indeed seem to have the strongest driver line-up alongside Ferrari. In both teams, there is hardly anything to separate their drivers.
At Ferrari, Charles Leclerc has just a 30-point lead over Carlos Sainz. Meanwhile, at McLaren, Norris has a 50-point lead over Piastri. However, when it comes to Red Bull, Max Verstappen has a whopping 87-point lead over Sergio Perez.
This huge difference in performances between the two Red Bull drivers is perhaps why both Marko and Norris do not believe that the Milton Keynes-based outfit have the strongest driver line-up despite winning the constructors’ title in both 2022 and 2023.
