Mar.5 (GMM) If Sergio Perez can preserve ending second behind Max Verstappen this 12 months, his place on the dominant Purple Bull workforce is perhaps protected for 2025.
Rumours have steered the 34-year-old Mexican will battle to persuade the workforce that he’s shut sufficient to Verstappen to deserve a brand new deal for subsequent season.
However, curiously, the influential Dr Helmut Marko praised Perez’s efficiency all through the 2024 season opening weekend in Bahrain.
“Checo drove an excellent race,” Marko has now informed Velocity Week. “It took him some time to get previous the Mercedes and Ferrari, however after that he optimised it.
“Attempting greater than he did would have been pointless. Second place behind Max was all he may obtain.”
The precise time and tempo hole to Verstappen, nonetheless, was stark. “For Max to set the quickest race lap on the similar time with the identical automobile and the identical tyres as Perez, and be two seconds quicker, was a present of energy of the primary order,” Marko mentioned.
“However he has Verstappen as a teammate, so not being destroyed by him is already an incredible achievement. If Max had not been there, it could have been an fascinating race.”
Based on former Haas boss Gunther Steiner, it sounds as if Perez has an excellent probability of staying at Purple Bull subsequent 12 months.
“Sergio remains to be there now, so possibly he’ll keep,” he informed Bild newspaper.
“He could possibly be launched, that’s true. However I imagine that the actual motion on the driving force market will solely actually start as soon as Mercedes has discovered their new driver. Then each driver shall be attempting to get the subsequent finest cockpit.”
Dutch racing driver Jeroen Bleekemolen is just not so positive ending second in Bahrain was such an enormous achievement for Perez.
“Let’s say that he’s not a foul driver,” he informed NOS. “It’s simply that Max is so significantly better than the remainder.
“Perez has one of the best automobile so he ought to really be coming second, however they’re undoubtedly not going to fireplace him if he finishes second within the championship.”
Former F1 driver Christijan Albers, in the meantime, informed De Telegraaf: “In the event you take a look at qualifying, we’re speaking about an nearly 4 tenths hole.
“Sure, okay, mistake right here, mistake there. However in the event you take a look at different groups, the distinction was solely a few tenths.”
