Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has claimed Pierre Gasly proved he is below Max Verstappen by crashing out twice in pre-season testing.
The Frenchman would hit the barrier on his first and last day inside the RB15 in Barcelona, the second a particularly nasty high-speed off entering Turn 9 (Campsa).
It would be a moment which effectively ended the team’s meaningful running, with the Dutchman limited to just 28 laps on the final day, and the typically blunt Marko made his feelings clear.
“What we’ve seen in the tests is that Gasly is not yet on Verstappen’s level, but we didn’t expect that either,” the Austrian was quoted by PlanetF1.
“Apart from the two crashes, it was perfect. [But] he should not allow himself to do that anymore.”
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It is clear by Marko’s comments that Red Bull’s focus is pretty solely on Verstappen, and having had a very strong pre-season reliability wise with Honda, expectations remain high.
“A minimum of five wins [is the target],” he declared. “I believe we also have a certain chance of the World Championship.”