Hundreds of F1 fans have slammed senior Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko on social media for his recent remarks about Pierre Gasly’s qualifying performance in the 2021 season-opener.
Specifically, Dr Marko said he believes Max Verstappen would have managed to set a faster lap time than Gasly’s best effort – which was good enough for P5 – if he were also driving for Scuderia AlphaTauri at Bahrain.
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“I would say Max would have definitely gained two or three tenths in qualifying. He would have done] the time of Gasly minus two and a half tenths,” Dr Marko said this week.
“But he certainly wouldn’t have been on pole,” he added.
This immediately prompted a strong reaction on social media, with many fans taking to Twitter to hit out at the Austrian for seemingly devaluing Gasly’s strong qualifying performance.
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However, some F1 fans defended him by pointing out that he was merely answering a journalist’s question.
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