Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko is certain that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen being team-mates simply wouldn’t work, due to the duo both being “superstars”.
Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Hamilton have all been rumoured to Sergio Perez’s Red Bull seat, which looks increasingly at threat.
Whilst the Mexican is contracted until the end of 2024, many have questioned whether he’ll even race for the side next season, should he underperform in the second half of 2023.
Perez has endured a strange campaign so far, which started with two victories in the opening four races.
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He overall claimed a rostrum at four of the opening five events, before going on a run of five races without a Q3 appearance.
In that timeframe, the Mexican claimed just one podium, leading to fears that he could be dropped by Red Bull for 2024.
However, Perez has returned to form recently with back-to-back Q3 appearances and podiums, silencing several rumours for the time being.
Ricciardo’s return to AlphaTauri has certainly piled the pressure onto the 33-year-old though, especially as team boss Christian Horner has recognised that Ricciardo wants Perez’s seat.
Hamilton is certainly not the favourite for Perez’s seat, given that he’s set to finish his career at Mercedes.
Marko is also not convinced that Hamilton would suit Red Bull, due to his rivalry with Verstappen.
The 80-year-old believes Ayrton Senna’s and Alain Prost’s heated time as partners at McLaren in 1989 is proof that a team needs a “hierarchy”, with Verstappen being the clear number one in his partnership with Perez.
The same could presumably be said then if Alonso moved to Red Bull, with Marko believing that Norris is the only person he “can still imagine” partnering Verstappen.
“The public, the TV viewers and the journalists will certainly love that,” Marko told Motorsport-Magazin.
“But we as team management want success and we want to win the championship – if possible both the Drivers’ and Constructors’.
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“Then it is better if you have a hierarchy, where it is clear who is the clearly faster number one and who is the number two driver.
“Norris I can still imagine but with Hamilton as a teammate, I have a hard head.
“The whole team atmosphere and our performance should not suffer. In the past, we saw, for example, Senna and Prost, two superstars, who only looked at each other and put the team in second place.”