Marko about gap Perez to Verstappen: “Two tenths maximum”

Sergio Perez will become Max Verstappen’s new teammate next year. The Mexican replaces Alexander Albon, who, according to the Red Bull top, could not get close enough to Verstappen. Helmut Marko is of the opinion that the Mexican will succeed, but has a side note.

It is the first time since Mark Webber that Red Bull Racing has contracted someone outside of its own junior program. This is, according to Helmut Marko, a necessity in order to compete with Mercedes.

“If you fall too far back in the field due to qualifying, you cannot be included in the strategy,” explains Marko. “Given the fact that we want to become world champions in 2021, we want to pull out all the stops in terms of strategy, and Perez can be very useful in that.

The expectations for Sergio Perez are already set very high, Marko says. “The point is that Perez can be close to Max in race trim. Qualifying is a different story, because no one has ever been close to Max. I expect a gap to Verstappen of about two tenths”, Marko predicts.

In order to become world champion, Red Bull Racing will, in addition to having developed a fast car, need two cars to compete with Mercedes. “Valtteri Bottas, except for that one day in Bahrain, is fairly close to Hamilton, which is what we expect from Perez compared to Verstappen. That is all we expect from Perez,” Marko concludes.