Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko claimed that Sergio Perez was performing at the same level as his team-mate and reigning world champion Max Verstappen at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix last weekend.
As reported by PlanetF1, Marko commented on Perez’s weekend at the Albert Park Circuit, saying:
“Checo [Sergio Perez] drove a great race, he was on par with Max [Verstappen]. He lost a position at the start because [Lewis] Hamilton made a sensational start, he had a little slip there, but he showed a good race and we expect the same from him.”
While Sergio Perez had a decent season in 2021, playing the perfect team-mate and wingman for Verstappen, he was certainly lacking when it came to Saturday’s qualifying. This year, however, with consecutive top-five qualifying results in all three race weekends so far, there has been a visible improvement.
Marko added, saying:
“He has improved a lot this year in qualifying and in the race he is also there. Actually, we should have got at least second and third places. But we are happy that Checo finished second.”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also praised his performance from last weekend, emphasizing that the 32-year-old was unlucky and deserves credit for a strong result. He said:
“Checo deserves a lot of credit because he was unlucky again with the safety car timing. But he made the necessary progress and finished second. He passed Lewis Hamilton with a strong maneuver and then had to overtake George as well.”
The Mexican finished the race in second and was 20 seconds off the lead. He, however, certainly did everything in his potential to maximize the result and score some good points for the team while Max Verstappen suffered a DNF.
“The race didn’t go as planned” – Sergio Perez on the Australian Grand Prix
Despite finishing second in the Australian Grand Prix, Sergio Perez believes that the Milton Keynes-based team has been very unlucky since the start of the season and that the race last weekend was still not the best result for the team.
As reported by PlanetF1, Perez said:
“We’ve been so unlucky for these first few races. It’s nice to be back on the podium, but I think the race didn’t go as planned. We had a bit too much degradation on the tires. I have a pretty good idea at the moment on the things we did wrong, but there’s a good analysis to be made. We were quite far from the Ferrari today. It’s only race three of the season, so it’s a long way to go. It’s a shame that we lost Max today for the team.”
With 30 championship points, the Red Bull driver currently stands fourth in the drivers’ standings, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
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