Marko had to get Perez: "Albon was unable to do that this year"

Sergio Perez will join Red Bull Racing in 2021 and should help the team to attack Mercedes. Max Verstappen should no longer be on his own. At least, that is the intention.

Perez not brought to Red Bull because of the money

Alexander Albon has lost his seat at Red Bull and of course that is not so strange. The Thai never really came close to Verstappen in 2020. Verstappen was alone in his fight against the two Mercedes drivers and according to Helmut Marko that has to change in 2021.

''We got Perez for two reasons. Firstly, because he drove a great season with some impressive results and he has a lot of knowledge of the Mercedes engine. Sponsors of Perez will also appear on our car, but it's not true that that's the reason we got Perez," says Marko about the sponsorship package from Mexico that Perez is taking with him everywhere.

Perez no second fiddle

For Marko there was no other option in 2021, because the drivers from his own junior set-up aren't strong enough. ''With Yuki Tsunoda we only had one driver ready for F1 and he is making his debut for AlphaTauri. We wanted to keep Pierre Gasly with that team because we think they can still make steps there," Marko says about the situation with the other team.

''Perez is coming to Red Bull because we need a stronger second driver to be able to vary more with the strategy, which Albon was unable to do this year because he had to come too far. Mercedes had an easy time looking after Max on its own," said Marko, who decided against La Gazzetta dello Sport that Perez was not coming as a second fiddle: "There is no such thing as a first and second driver.''