After five races of the season, Max Verstappen has achieved four victories. Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko believes rivals will be able to impose a more intense battle on the team at the upcoming round in Miami.
Helmut Marko: “Competitors will be able to get closer to us on the circuits of Miami and Monaco. Moreover, the battle has become more intense, especially in qualifying. I fully admit that it will be difficult for us to take pole position on these circuits.
But the opponents are performing inconsistently and we are happy with that. When several teams continually finish behind us, it leads to our lead growing. In China we were surprised that it was Lando Norris who finished second, as we assumed our rivals would be Ferrari drivers. But neither on the race distance nor in qualifying did they manage to get closer to the top three.”
Commenting on Sergio Perez’s results, Marco praised the Mexican rider for rethinking his approach to work towards 2023: “I am happy that Sergio is showing stronger results at the start of the season than last year. Before the start of the stage, he no longer makes any statements that he wants to be ahead of Max.
In 2023 he desperately continued to go his own way in choosing settings when he was inferior to his partner in terms of speed, but this year he abandoned this approach. When it comes to choosing settings, he goes the same route as Max. As a result, he loses less time and performs significantly better than in 2023, especially in qualifying.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
