Marko: The others are copying us, some are copying better

A decision regarding Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull will be taken "soon".

That is the news from the mouth of the team’s F1 consultant Dr Helmut Marko, amid reports the decision will be made ahead of the Spanish GP late next month.

As Formula 1 gathered in Monaco last week, reports suggested Perez, 34, had done enough this year to at least secure a new one-year deal.

But the Mexican then had a miserable weekend on the Principality’s streets - qualifying a dismal P16 and then sitting in a wreck on lap 1 - with Marko estimating the damage of his crash with Kevin Magnussen at up to 3 million euros.

Marko, 81, thinks Magnussen should have been penalised by the stewards, but not everyone in the paddock is putting the sole blame on the embattled Haas driver.

"If you want to blame someone, I lean more towards Perez than Magnussen," said Chinese-Dutch racing driver Ho-Pin Tung, in conversation with nu.nl.

"Of course Magnussen was optimistic, but the stewards also look at how much space a driver is left. Perez wanted to stay on the ideal line, but there was still a lot of space on the left.

"On the onboard, you can also clearly see Perez looking in his right mirror. He might not have known that Magnussen was there, but perhaps he should have. Perez didn’t have to cut him off like that," Tung added.

He also thinks Perez contributed to the crash by qualifying so poorly.

"When you’re so far back, the risk of being caught up in something like that is high. He really has to improve on that," Tung said.

Marko admits that Perez needs to ensure he is consistently closer to Verstappen in the sister car.

"It is very difficult, if not impossible, for Sergio to perform at Max’s level," he said. "But he does have to be closer.

"We need to analyse how things went so wrong," Marko told Sky Deutschland.

Team boss Christian Horner agrees that with Ferrari now just 24 points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ standings, "it is extremely important for us that both cars earn points".

Marko told Osterreich newspaper that a decision regarding Perez will be taken "soon", taking into consideration how Ferrari and McLaren have dramatically closed the gap.

"We are now in the third year of the current regulations, and the others are copying us - some are copying better, and you see the result now at McLaren," he said.

"But Ferrari has also constantly developed."

Marko admits, however, that Perez was not totally to blame for his poor Monaco GP weekend.

"Our two drivers came to Monte Carlo enthusiastically, saying the car handled the kerbs really well in the simulator," he said.

"But as soon as they were in the car, they said ’undriveable!’."