2023-10-13 12:18:50
Red Bull F1 advisor Helmut Marko has reminded Sergio Perez that AlphaTauri has “three drivers” after his struggles at the Qatar Grand Prix. Perez missed out on qualifying for Q3 for the eighth time this season, and was involved in a three-car problem in the sprint, leaving the drivers’ championship in the hands of Max Verstappen.
Perez started the race from the pit lane and worked his way up to 10th place, but was unable to recover after receiving three time penalties for violating track limits. Perez has only scored five points in the last three races and is now 30 points behind Lewis Hamilton in second place in the drivers’ championship. Marko insists Perez must try to end “this downward spiral” to avoid losing second place to Verstappen, who has a huge 209-point lead over his teammate. . “I had another fast lap in Qatar, but a 10-second penalty doesn’t help,” Marko told ORF, adding that he “didn’t notice” that Perez had received a third penalty. Marko admits that the large gap between Perez and Verstappen was never a problem for Red Bull until the arrival of a rival team that could always fill the void. McLaren has recorded back-to-back podiums and Marko is concerned that McLaren’s threat is increasing. “But now that we have two strong drivers at McLaren, it has become very important,” Marko continued. “I hope I can defend my second place in the world championship. It looked comfortable for a while, but now the lead is starting to melt,” said Marko, who currently has three players at Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri. It increases the pressure on Perez by reminding him that there are drivers in the team, all of whom have recently competed. In 2024, AlphaTauri will have Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo as regular drivers, with Liam Lawson taking on the role of reserve driver. Daniel Ricciardo rejoined Red Bull at the start of this year, returning as a full-time F1 driver after Nick de Vries was sacked after 10 races. Ricciardo has missed the last five races after fracturing his left hand in a crash during practice at Zandvoort, but is set to compete alongside Yuki Tsunoda in 2024. Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson replaced Ricciardo and AlphaTauri achieved their best result of the year with ninth place at the Singapore Grand Prix. “The Czechs have to get results now. AlphaTauri have three drivers and Lawson is the reserve driver for four cars. So a lot can happen in the future,” the New Zealander said next year. Although he has been passed over as a driver for F1, Marko says, “It’s simply a logical conclusion that sooner or later Lawson will be consistently active in F1.” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told Sky F1: “The Czechs had a shocking race.” “He had a terrible weekend,” Horner said, stressing that Perez had missed an opportunity to extend his advantage over Hamilton. The reason for this was that Perez “suddenly was far ahead” without a penalty, and that it was “a day when Luis couldn’t score any points”. “This means we missed an opportunity to solidify our second place,” Horner insisted. “We will give the Czech Republic all the support we can to help them get back on track.” “You guys will beat him enough, but we really want to see him do it.”
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