Helmut Marko has expressed his relief that a prediction from Max Verstappen earlier in 2022 did not come true. The season did not get off to the best of starts for Red Bull, with the team suffering reliability problems in the opening races. Both Verstappen and Sergio Perez retired at the Bahrain Grand Prix due to mechanical issues, while Verstappen recorded another DNF two races later in Australia, leaving him almost 50 points adrift of then-championship leader Charles Leclerc. As such, the Dutchman voiced his belief that Red Bull would require many races to catch up to their rivals. In reality, the team achieved this much faster than Verstappen had expected.
Marko glad Verstappen's prediction didn't come true
"After the more than bumpy start, Max said then that we need 33 or 36 races to catch up," Marko told Austria's ServusTV . "Thank God we did that quicker. It was an excellent team performance, and it was also crucial that we had better reliability than Ferrari." As it was, Verstappen became increasingly dominant as the campaign progressed and now, with four races still to go, has recorded 12 wins in 2022. This included his victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, in which the 25-year-old sealed his second F1 World Championship.
Red Bull's target for rest of 2022 set out by Marko
Marko has praised Red Bull's teamwork as being pivotal in securing their 2022 success. Now, the Austrian hopes that Perez's P2 in the World Championship can be achieved in the final races. "Our success was achieved by a united, passionate team, fighting for the World Championship with all sporting means," Marko said. "When you win, you always look to optimise that. We've won six Drivers' Championship titles now, but we've never had both drivers in the top two places at the end of a season." Perez is currently just one point ahead of Leclerc in the battle for second place.
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