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Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko reveals Max Verstappen never saw Sergio Perez as a threat to him in the world championship. The world title battle this season has featured only Max and Sergio because of the Austrian team's superiority.
Things did get quite interesting after the race in Baku where Max Verstappen lost out to Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in a straight battle. At that point, the championship lead was slashed to single digits but race wins in Miami and Monaco have changed the complexion of the championship.
Max Verstappen leads his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez by 39 points and according to Helmut Marko, he feels the debate is now 'settled' who is the leading contender. Talking to OE24, he said,
"That's settled. But in truth, Max never saw any serious danger in Perez."
Further accentuating his point, Marko looked back at the time when he compared Max Verstappen to Ayrton Senna and was laughed at. He said,
"I compared Max to Senna a few years ago and was smiled at. The know-it-alls from back then are slowly running out of arguments. Max has not only developed as a racing driver, but also as a personality. The incredible qualifying lap he put in in Monaco on Saturday is already coming close to Senna. Max is the best in all conditions."
Red Bull is usually stronger in Barcelona
Looking ahead to the prospects of the team in Barcelona, Marko felt that Red Bull tends to be even stronger in Barcelona as compared to other tracks. Even though last season there was a formidable challenge from Ferrari and Charles Leclerc seemed destined to win(before the engine failure), this time around, Marko did not expect many challenges this time around. He said,
"We're usually even stronger there. Last year we struggled with Ferrari – but they get it all wrong, and it's easy to make mistakes in F1. I'm sorry that the tension is lost. As you can see, TV ratings on Sky are falling dramatically. You have to watch that. Fortunately, the boom in Austria is unbroken, as the ticket sales show (see right, ed.)."
The Austrian team will be hoping for another straightforward weekend this time around.
The new layout could in essence provide better opportunities to pull off overtakes although we still need to see if that happens. The team will be hoping for another 1-2 finish for the team as Monaco did not go to place for Sergio Perez.
