Dr Helmut Marko says he very worried that Red Bull will fail in its mission to finally finish both first and second in a drivers’ world championship.
It is the energy drink-owned Formula 1 team’s last mission in its utterly dominant 2023 campaign - but the out-of-form Sergio Perez is now only 30 points in front of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton with five races to run.
"On paper, Checo should easily finish second," seven time world champion Hamilton is quoted by Speed Week.
"Whether I can still get close to him matters mostly on him and his performance. But to be honest, I still think I have a chance."
Marko, Red Bull’s notorious team consultant, admits he is worried.
"The fear is actually very real," he told Osterreich newspaper.
"Without the crash, Hamilton would have gained another 10 or 15 points," Marko added, referring to Hamilton’s clash with his own teammate George Russell in the Qatar GP.
After that collision, Hamilton accepted the blame for a rare mistake.
"Can I please correct that?" Marko told the Austrian newspaper interviewer Knut Okresek. "What is different is that Hamilton is now starting to admit his mistakes."
Finally, Marko was asked about F1 legend Gerhard Berger’s claim for the first time that Max Verstappen is actually "even better" than his own old teammate Ayrton Senna.
"At first, Gerhard didn’t share my euphoria about Max," Marko insisted.
"When I first came up with this comparison with Senna, he said ’Enough of that!’ But even Mr (Toto) Wolff said at the time that he couldn’t see the talent and he signed (Esteban) Ocon instead."