Red Bull had Lewis Hamilton incentive for replacing Alex Albon with Sergio Perez

“[Nico] Hulkenberg was last with Renault. You probably can’t use the three races he drove with the Mercedes engine, because he was more busy adjusting to the car than collecting data.”

Marko also made it clear what Red Bull are expecting from Perez in his debut season as they look to close the gap to Mercedes.

“Perez has to be within striking distance of Max in race trim,” added Marko. “We’ll see in qualifying, as nobody has managed to reach his level yet.

“It may be a maximum of two tenths, something in the region – maybe even less. We need a strength as a team that we can fight against Mercedes with two drivers.

“I expect that we will be Mercedes’ opponents again. If Bottas doesn’t have such a bad day as in Bahrain, he fulfils his role very well. We expect the same from Perez.”