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Helmut Marko has never been shy about airing his opinions in the media. Although the Red Bull Racing advisor has been in a great mood recently with the recent surge in the team's performance, he was still not entirely happy with Gasly's performance at AlphaTauri.
Helmut Marko has been happy with how Red Bull have been performing recently and how good Yuki Tsunoda performed in his debut race at Bahrain, but the mention of Pierre Gasly invited his ire.
According to Helmut Marko, Pierre Gasly, who qualified fifth at the Bahrain Grand Prix while his "impressive" teammate Yuki Tsunoda qualified outside of the top 10, did not have an impressive performance, and in his view, Max Verstappen would have been able to put in a lap that was .25s quicker than the Frenchman.
"I would say Max would have definitely gained two or three tenths in qualifying. He would have done the time of Gasly minus two-and-a-half tenths," Helmut Marko said in an interview with Motorsport.com.
We're happy to have Yuki Tsunoda in the team: Helmut Marko
On the contrary, Yuki Tsunoda seems to have gained Helmut Marko's confidence, as the team advisor has nothing but good things to say about the young Japanese driver.
“With Yuki, we have an incredible diamond in the rough. We don’t want to burn his wings. We will study his progress and then make decisions in due course,” Helmut Marko said. "The way he does it, the way he moves the car forward, is fantastic. He’s also a charismatic person. We’re happy to have him.”
Speaking about a potential move to Red Bull for Tsunoda, given that Sergio Perez is on a one-year contract, Helmut Marko didn't completely rule out the possibility of it happening.
When questioned on the possibility of Tsunoda getting lined up for early promotion to Red Bull, Helmut Marko responded, "We’ll see. First, there are 23 Grands Prix to run. We’ll see how it develops."
It would appear Marko feels Gasly has maxed out (no pun intended) as a driver while he sees greater potential in young Tsunoda. The driver dynamics at Red Bull are a hot topic every season and it will be interesting to see who takes centre-stage this year.
