Marko must pick his own drivers: 'Otherwise Mateschitz will cut the programme'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The second seat at Red Bull Racing has been a much-discussed topic over the past two seasons. After the departure of Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen is actually on his own and the question is who can best sit next to the Dutchman?
A Formula 1 driver can best measure himself against his team mate, so if you as a driver win every qualifying session and also with a wide margin, then you know that something is not right. Whereas at Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are often very close to each other, Red Bull Racing cannot manage that for the time being.
Problems in the training programme
According to Jack Plooij ''Red Bull should have done that a long time ago'', but is that really that easy? In F1 aan Tafel, Plooij talks about the current situation at Red Bull and AlphaTauri. The small team is becoming more and more independent, so Pierre Gasly can just keep driving there. Yuki Tsunoda is mentioned as a new driver, but will he provide the solution?
''There's a lot more going on these days and it's no longer about being the fastest driver at all'', says Plooij about Tsunoda's tyres with Honda. ''Helmut Marko sticks to his own talents as long as possible. Of course he would love to put a driver like Nico Hulkenberg next to Verstappen, but then Dietrich Mateschitz quits Red Bull's training programme. Maybe you should take Tsunoda to Red Bull, do something crazy. These are considerations that Marko has to make, but I would like to see a strong driver next to Verstappen'', concludes the reporter from Ziggo Sport.