As was pretty much expected, Helmut Marko has hit out following Sergio Perez's miserable Monaco weekend.

The Mexican described it as the "worst weekend" he could remember, having gone from hero to zero on the unforgiving streets of the Principality.

A year ago he was lauded following his drive to victory, but twelve months down the line it was criticism all the way.

Crashing out in Q1, Sunday was never going to be easy, but putting himself even further into the team's bad books was the fact that in removing the car from the track the marshals gave the waiting world a priceless view of the RB19's underside.

Rather than making amends on Sunday, Perez was involved in numerous collisions necessitating no less than five pits stops, finally crossing the line two laps down on his teammate.

It seems only yesterday that the Mexican was talking up his title chances, but judging by the reaction maybe he should start worrying about his job prospects.

Asked about Sunday's race, a still angry Marko told Red Bull's own ServusTV that the damage was done on Saturday.

"It didn't matter then," he said, "everything went wrong there", adding that the qualifying crash was "not irresponsible, but unreasonable".

On Sunday he told Sky Germany: "I hope that today's mistakes are enough for the rest of the season.

"In general, his speed when he drove free was good," he added. "But his crash in qualifying ruined the weekend.

Meanwhile, in another seeming reversal of fortune, Marko was full of praise for young Nyck de Vries, who only a couple of weeks ago appeared to be in the Austrian's line of fire.

This was by far his best weekend for AlphaTauri," said the Austrian, according to Motorsport.com. "Nyck was much closer to Yuki than before. This is what I want to see from him.

"We want to see more," he added. "We thought we'd bring in someone with some experience already to challenge Yuki. But that didn't happen yet, so that is the most important thing."

Asked about rumours of a Barcelona deadline for de Vries to raise his game, Marko said: There is never a deadline. We just watch it and look at the performances.

"When we have to act, then we will act," he warned. "At the moment we don't do anything."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 30/05/2023 17:02

"@max noble
Marco is certainly brutal, but I doubt he's as "honest" in the sense of objective & analytical as you suggest. His observations. criticisms or even praise are carefully directed towards some individual or team goal {as perceived by Marco, of course). This tactic seems to permeate much of RBR's public outpourings with Horner operating in a similar way. "

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2. Posted by ffracer, 30/05/2023 16:07

"Thank you Pitpass for another great, poignant article. Enough with these miserable windbags, the only ones unreasonable and inconsistent are Helmut Marko and Christian Horner. The only agenda these fame wh@res are consistent with, in front of their precious world media, are lauding and/or discrediting and humiliating drivers because drama gains traction. Through its inception, RB have exploited/used media to create a massive company through their exploits and drama in motorsport.

Unfortunately for other teams, RB's resources has facilitated assembling an infallible army of smart racers. Genius designer, excellent strategists and a kickass group of amazing engineers/mechanics to complement their great drivers... but how many careers have been destroyed by signing w Red Bull? Drivers aren't fired, they undergo incredible scrutiny and hurtful slander over long periods of time. Imagine Charles LeClerc and Ferrari using the RB shaming practices. I'm sorry, not my choice for Ferrari but this guy crashes in qualifying or the race every other/third weekend and Ferrari do not publicly flog him/ humiliate him for months. This RB culture needs to be admonished and destroyed.

Sergio: use the power of Carlos Slim, Mexico and Honda and do whatever you can for an Aston Martin Honda drive in 2025. You have been driving beautifully these last few years, punching above your weight and bringing the car home after many battles on track."

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3. Posted by Mad Matt, 30/05/2023 12:56

"I know what you mean @Max Noble but I think Sergio knows he screwed up with the crash so at best Marko's words won't change anything or at worst they just bring more stress. It'd be different if Sergio was pretending everything was fine..... but perhaps that's just my style of management :-)

He also made a right royal mess of the race what with crashing into the car in front but being Monaco, he was never going to get into the points without a load of cars dropping out or some other kind of bizarre incident.... the rain storm simply wasn't enough."

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4. Posted by Editor, 30/05/2023 11:56

"@ Max Noble

Trust me mate, on a bad day I can make Marko look like a pussycat.

Be warned!"

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5. Posted by Max Noble, 30/05/2023 11:54

"Marko is the brutal, honest voice we all need in our lives to improve. Horrid statements… based on analytics and logic. Truth hurts… (side note, so pleased I don’t work for him… too painful…!)
"

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