Helmut Marko strikes again. Starting tomorrow, a Kansas City Shuffle will take place, making Perez the teammate of De Vries and Tsunoda that of Verstappen.
Things can go fast in Formula 1. Literally, but also figuratively. In 2016, Daniil Kvyat was still the man for the future at Red Bull, with a beautiful girlfriend and all the trimmings. But after three races that year, he was abruptly pushed aside by Helmut Marko. The fact that he drove into Vettel several times in China probably didn’t help. But it is still bizarre that the man who scored more points than Ricciardo in his first year at Red Bull Racing was demoted in this way.
Kvyat never fully recovered. He now occasionally drives in the NASCAR series in America without much success. He also lost his girlfriend to the same man who took his seat. That man won his first race for Red Bull Racing and has now become world champion twice. Daniil has to wonder ‘what if?’ every now and then. But for Marko, Max’s success is proof that he was right. Better results than Max achieved would hardly have been possible.
Now, seven years later, Marko hopes to repeat the trick again. There were already rumors prior to the season that there were problems between Verstappen and Perez. At the previous race in Saudi Arabia, it turned out once again that the two did not award each other a point. Marko apparently has no desire to let this get out of hand. Moreover, he would be extremely disappointed in the capital mistake Perez made this morning in qualifying. The Mexican makes these kinds of mistakes more often, despite the fact that he has now passed the age of 30 for several years.
The fact that Perez blamed the car did not go in with Der Helmut either. PER was never the choice of the hotel owner, as he entered Red Bull as an outsider. This is because Marko’s famous training program did not produce a suitable candidate. This would always have been a thorn in the side of the Austrian, which he could do without as a toothache. Also because of the stone that has already claimed his other eye.
Reportedly, there have now been some fireworks in the Red Bull garage after qualifying. And now that the clouds of smoke have cleared, Tsunoda suddenly finds himself in the RB19 next to Max. It could have been De Vries just like that, but Tsunoda was just a bit faster than the man from Sneek in the first races. So unfortunately we orange glasses don’t get that pleasure (yet).
In principle, Perez ‘may’ compete next to De Vries in the Alpha Tauri. In this way, Red Bull would still comply with the contract obligation with Checo. The Mexican still has a contract up to and including 2024. It was also no longer possible to use another driver before tomorrow. Drivers must have completed qualifying in order to participate in the race.
Whether Perez will go along with this idea to continue his career is still the question. It is possible that Checo will call it quits and try his chances in American racing. In that case, the door is suddenly open again for Ricciardo, but also for the plethora of Red Bull talents in F2. In the sprint race this morning, two of them came first (Hauger) and second (Crawford), while Iwasa took pole for the feature race yesterday. The silly season starts early this year.
Do you think Tsunoda can give Max a hard time this year? And is this good or bad news for De Vries? Let us know in the comments!
This article BREAK: Perez now teammate De Vries, Tsunoda next to Verstappen appeared first on Ruetir.
