Sergio Perez drove a brilliant race at the Australian Grand Prix. So much so that Helmut Marko put him on par with the reigning world champion and his teammate, Max Verstappen. Sergio Perez finished the Australian Grand Prix with an impressive P2. However, it wasn’t a great outing for the other side of the Red Bull garage as Max, after completing 38 laps, had to retire after his car started emitting smoke.

This was Red Bull’s third retirement of the first three races of the season. Despite huge reliability issues, Sergio Perez finished the race as runner-up. Important points for the team and himself.

Helmut Marko believes Sergio Perez is on par with Max Verstappen

Qualifying pace has not always been the strong suit of Checo. According to Helmut Marko, it was a weakness for him. But that’s surely in the past as the Mexican started the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on pole. This made him the first Mexican pole sitter in F1.

Max Verstappen & Sergio Perez Set to Run Contrasting Rear-Wing Setup at Tricky Jeddah F1 Circuit

Sergio continued his good run of form in qualifying as he finished the Australian Grand Prix qualifying at P3. However, he lost his position at the start of the race to Hamilton. Speaking to Motorsport.com, Helmut Marko said, “Checo drove a great race and was on an equal footing with Max. He lost a position at the start, but that was a sensational start from Hamilton.”

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It particularly dissatisfied Perez when he lost his place to Hamilton. Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton have shown us both some brilliant duels in the past year, and we are certainly hoping to see some more. However, Mercedes is not on par with Red Bull yet. The engineers need to put in a few hours before Mercedes can compete with the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull.

Is Red Bull miles away from Ferrari?

Perez openly admitted their battle at the Australian Grand Prix was only with Mercedes, as Ferrari was too quick for them. It wasn’t an easy fight against Mercedes as well, even though the Red Bull has more pace. Perez admitted, “Ferrari were very strong today and we never had a chance against them. This is the first weekend where they really got the better of us,”.

He further added, “In qualifying, we were actually still close, but today they were on a different level”

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All in all, Red bull are struggling. And all this is due to the RB18’s reliability issues. In 3 races, Red Bull have already retired their car three times. And this has cost them some serious championship points.

But on the bring side, there are hints of brilliance from Red Bull and we all are aware of the quality of their drivers. Let’s hope they can overcome the reliability issues as soon as possible and keep Max and Perez on track.