Helmut Marko claims Max Verstappen’s talent is ‘underestimated’

Verstappen can finish P2 in all the remaining races and still win the championship in 2023.

Helmut Marko claims Max Verstappen’s talent is ‘underestimated’

Helmut Marko (Credits: F1-Fansite.com) and Max Verstappen (Credits: The Japan Times)

Max Verstappen has been purely dominating the 2023 season. He is 118 points clear of second place Sergio Perez and is well on his way to his third world championship. Despite this, Red Bull chief Helmut Marko believes that Verstappen is underestimated.

Marko said that Max Verstappen has exceptional mental capacities. Talking about his talent and speed, Marko also said that for his teammate Sergio Perez to be within three-tenths of Verstappen is an achievement. He also clarified that Perez couldn’t achieve the first position with Verstappen around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mCn0X3tbb8

“Max is underestimated, He is an exceptional driver. He even noticed on the radio when my mobile rang! [in FP2 during the Spanish GP]. That Perez has to be within three tenths [of a second] of Max is a generous interpretation on our part. Sometimes it was more. Perez is second in the world championship. More is not possible for him. He is fulfilling that at the moment,” Marko is quoted by Motorsport.com.

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Red Bull’s pitlane ‘advantage’ was problematic for the team due to the racing conditions in Spa

Red Bull Pit Stop
Red Bull Pit Stop (Credits: PlanetF1)

As constructor champions of 2022, Red Bull has the first pit garage in the pit lane. This is usually advantageous to the recipient, but it turned into a hindrance for the Milton-Keynes-based team at Spa.

During the sprint, after the safety car started, every team was pitting as fast as they could to switch onto intermediates. Due to this, Red Bull had to be extra careful when releasing their car back into the pit lane. Red Bull boss Christian Horner also elaborated on this.

Horner mentioned that the safe thing to do with Verstappen was to pit Perez and let Verstappen take the start. Verstappen pitted at the end of the first lap. He came out behind Oscar Piastri, but he closed him down. He said that Verstappen noticed that Piastri had used his tires quite hard, which might have made things easy for Verstappen.

“Obviously the privilege of being first in the pit lane is you have the whole of the grid potentially coming in behind you. The safer thing to do with Max was to take the start and pit Checo. It’s risk vs reward and for one point, it didn’t seem to play out. We took the start and had confidence we should have good pace but you never know,” Horner told Sky Sports.

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