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One of the hits that the 2020 Formula 1 World Cup left us was the signing of Sergio Pérez by Red Bull. The Milton Keynes team announced on December 18 that they would surrender to the evidence, after the poor performance of Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon compared to Max Verstappen, and decided to break with the Mexican the rule of not looking for pilots outside his youth program, in a new attempt to put an end to the hegemony of Mercedes in the Big circus.
Asked about this move just when Pérez has traveled this week to the county of Buckinghamshire to begin preparing his acclimatization to the energy carHelmut Marko reveals in ‘F1-Insider’ that he would have liked to have been able to sign the return of Sebastian Vettel, but that when they made the decision not to continue with Albon, the four-time champion was no longer on the market.
“In 2022 there will be a free seat in Mercedes”
“When Ferrari notified his departure, we had no seats available for Vettel. At that time we thought that Albon would improve his performance every race and could share a team with Verstappen also in 2021. That’s what I told Sebastian. Unfortunately, we were wrong. And when we had to act, Vettel was no longer on the market because it had signed a long-term commitment to Aston Martin. For this reason, Sergio Pérez was the logical decision for us “, Marko assures.
Likewise, the Red Bull adviser admits that he recommended Vettel to take a sabbatical in 2021, although he pointed out that signing for a team like Aston Martin is a very tempting option: “I didn’t want him to act hastily, but to wait because he was clear that the pilot market is going to change substantially in 2022. For example, I am sure there will be a vacant seat in Mercedes. I just wanted him to still be on the market at the right time so that he could accept the best possible offer. Above all, he didn’t want a four-time world champion to say goodbye to Formula 1 like that. However, I admit that Aston Martin is very tempting. It is a cult name, its close collaboration with Mercedes has a good sporting perspective … “.