Helmut Marko has indicated that Max Verstappen would outperform Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri if the pair were teammates together. Both graduated from AlphaTauri, or Toro Rosso as it was formally called, but where Verstappen shone at Red Bull, Gasly very much struggled to handle the pressure. "I would say that Max would certainly have squeezed out two or three tenths in qualifying [for the Bahrain Grand Prix]. He would certainly not have been on pole," Marko told the Formel1.de YouTube channel. The Red Bull advisor has also been full of praise for rookie Yuki Tsunoda, who stepped into the AlphaTauri car for his first F1 Grand Prix in Bahrain. The Japanese driver looked especially quick over one lap, and its safe to say that Marko was impressed by his driving in the race, which saw Tsunoda get into the points after a tricky start. "I'm impressed by the way Tsunoda approaches things, the way he lets the car fly. He's also a charismatic, funny guy in his small overall appearance. I think he's very, very positive for Formula 1," Marko concludes. "We are very happy that we have him. He has a self-confidence that is unbelievable. He's only interested in driving in front, to be the fastest. "Let's see how it develops. We knew from the beginning that we had an unbelievable diamond in the rough. We won't burn it up. We'll look at developments and then make our decisions in good time."
Most read
