Marko: Max was in tears after Monaco crash

Asked by Motorsport Total if Verstappen was now faster than Ricciardo, Marko replied, "Yes. There is a lot of data and in qualifying the gap to Ricciardo is bigger. In the race, Max is also a bit faster."

Stats back up the Doctor as Verstappen beat Ricciardo in the 2018 championship by 79 points and also outqualified his teammate 15 to 5.

It was not always this way. When Verstappen stepped up to Red Bull in 2016, he was beaten by Ricciardo in the championship. The qualifying contest was 6 to 11 also in favour of the driver of the #3 car.

In 2017 things began to change, again Ricciardo was better in the championship but this time Verstappen won the qualy battle 13 to 7.

Marko explained, "The strange thing is that Max sometimes slides [the car] more but still manages to keep the tyres alive. This was not the case when arrived at Red Bull but, by the second year, Ricciardo had dropped back a bit."

"However, Daniel recognised the problem and worked intensively with his physio and in other areas. He came back at Verstappen again. But in the second half of 2018, Verstappen clearly edged ahead."

The 21-year-old started 2018 as Red Bull's chosen one. In October the previous year, he inked a deal with the energy drinks outfit which will keep him in blue until the end of 2020. A move that irked Ricciardo.

Ironically, early on in the campaign, Verstappen was wayward and incident-prone, accused of overdriving by pundits. The Red Bull teammates collided famously in Baku, but it was Ricciardo who bounced back with victory at Monaco a highlight for him at that point, in contrast, while the driver of car #33 shot himself in the foot before the race even began.

Marko recalled Verstappen's early season foibles, "It started with Hamilton [in Bahrain... trying to overtake Hamilton on the outside was a bit bold."

"Or let's take Monte Carlo: in the first two practice sessions, Ricciardo was ahead of him on the timesheets by two-tenths. [During FP3] at the swimming pool, [Verstappen] arrived behind Sainz. If you have a car in front of you at Monaco, you can forget the lap and immediately abort. "

"You don't need to try to squeeze yourself past but he did. Of course, Sainz also did his share, after all the two were big rivals at Toro Rosso."

"Max is not stupid, he was in tears in the pits, he knew. He's fast enough, he does not have to constantly prove he's the fastest, he does not need that."

Credit to Verstappen, he did turn his season around dramatically and in the final half only World Champion Lewis Hamilton outscored the 21-year-old whose highlights were winning the team's home race in Austria, an emphatic victory in Mexico and robbed of a sure winby Esteban Ocon's moment of brainfade in Brazil.

"From Le Castellet he was flawless," gushed Marko.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/05/26/monaco-fp3-ricciardo-fastest-verstappen-crashes-heavily/