02/08/2023
NEWS STORY
Such is his dominance that Helmut Marko claims that being second to Max Verstappen is like a win.
The Austrian's claim follows Verstappen's eighth successive victory, which sees him head into the summer break with a 125 point lead over his teammate.
The Dutchman - like Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso - has finished all 724 laps of the season thus far, and has been on the podium at all 12 races, not forgetting the two Sprint wins.
"Being second behind Max is like a win," Marko tells the F1 Nation podcast. "There won't be any other driver who could stay with him on one level. Maybe Alonso and Hamilton would be nearer, but nobody could beat him at the moment.
"I know how good Max is and that has to be considered," he continued. "He's nursing the tyres and he's still going fast. He can read the race and he's so far ahead with what he's doing he's already past. It's unbelievable capacity in his head.
"It's so unbelievable," he added, "the performance of the whole team, pit stops, strategy, the drivers... and we do some entertainment with the conversations between Max and his engineer..."
Indeed, Marko admits that he regrets the interruption that is the summer break.
"I would like to keep it going, but for the people who are really hard working, like the mechanics, they need to recover," he admitted.
Eight-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton agrees that the Dutchman and his team are in a class of their own, however he took the opportunity to take a vicious dig at Verstappen's teammate, Sergio Perez.
"At the moment, it's impossible to beat the Red Bull unless they don't finish," he told Belgium's Sporza. "They're eight-tenths to one second faster per lap than everybody else.
"It is what it is," he added, "there's nothing I can do about it.
"Do I want to be as fast as them? Of course. Would I like to have a car that's as fast as them? Of course.
"If was in Sergio's car, Max would not be having the same time he's having now," he smiled. "But it's not the way life is."
Ouch!