Senior Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has revealed what all of Red Bull’s “second drivers” since Daniel Ricciardo have struggled with relative to Max Verstappen.
The Milton Keynes-based team have found it difficult to find a team-mate capable of consistently getting close to Verstappen, and they have fielded three different drivers in their second car since 2019.
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Sergio Perez, who took his maiden victory with Red Bull in Baku after Verstappen suffered a tyre failure, has fallen somewhat short of expectations, but the Mexican still has at least half of a season to prove he deserves his seat.
Speaking to Motorsport-Magazin, Dr Marko said Perez tried running a different car set-up to Verstappen, and he revealed that Red Bull’s last three “second drivers” have struggled with the car having oversteer in high-speed corners.
“Of course he is not happy with the gap to Max,” the Austrian said of Perez.
“He tried his own set-up instead of Max’s, which is maybe not the easiest for a driver.
“Max doesn’t mind it, even when the car oversteers in fast corners. All of our second drivers had problems with that.
“Perez had the same [problem], and that’s why he tried his own setup, but it didn’t work,” he explained.
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Continuing, Dr Marko said Red Bull and Scuderia AlphaTauri will make a decision about their 2022 driver line-ups shortly after Formula 1 returns from its summer shutdown in late August, adding that they are looking at a “few options.”
“There are a few options, but I don’t want to name names.
“The intention is to continue with the four drivers we have. Probably at Spa or between the first two races of the second half of the season we will announce our drivers, both for AlphaTauri and Red Bull,” he added.
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