Perez for heavy-duty assignment: "No one has been able to reach the level of Max"

Fastest drivers

Perez seemed certain of his seat at Aston Martin before 2021, yet he was told he had to make way for Sebastian Vettel at the end of 2020 with a clause in his contract. Perez seemed to go without a seat for a while, but in the end he got the chance at Red Bull. Many people mentioned Nico Hulkenberg as a suitable character next to Max, but Marko didn't care.

''For us it was never about which duo would work well together, but what would be best for the team. McLaren, Renault and Ferrari will be there next year and then we need a strong driver duo to become world champion. You need those drivers to have a good strategy during the race," Marko said to Motorsport-total.com.

Max never beaten

Albon drove a strong weekend in Abu Dhabi, but to no avail. ''Had he done so constantly, we would never have had to have a discussion. After his third place in Mugello we thought the spell had broken, but then there was another bad weekend in Sochi.''

According to Marko, Perez doesn't have to beat Verstappen, but he has to be close by.

''Perez should be within shooting distance of Max in the race and we'll see in qualifying. Nobody has been able to reach Max's level there yet. There should be a maximum difference of two tenths, because as a team we need to be able to attack Mercedes with two drivers. If Bottas is not having a bad day as he did in Bahrain, then he is fulfilling his role very well. That is what we expect from Perez,'' concludes the Austrian.