Helmut Marko took a dim view towards Sergio Perez's display in Monaco last weekend but the Red Bull chief was delighted with Nyck de Vries' efforts in the Principality with AlphaTauri.
Perez's troubles started on Saturday when a clumsy crash in qualifying ensured a back row start on race day and the prospect of a long and painful afternoon along the blue shores of the Mediterranean for the Red Bull charger on race day.
Red Bull's strategic attempts at improving the Mexican's fortunes by bringing their driver in at the end of the first lap and swapping his set of mediums for hards proved worthless as slow traffic left Perez miserably stranded among the laggards.
©RedBull
Points were never on the cards, as Checo's plight only got worse after contacts with Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and George Russell, and five pit stops.
"I hope that today’s mistakes are enough for the rest of the season," Marko told Sky Germany. "In general, his speed when he drove free was good. But his crash in qualifying ruined the weekend."
Marko branded Perez's Q1 blunder "not irresponsible, but unreasonable".
"It was just a weekend where nothing worked for him at all," chimed in Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. "I would say the sooner he comes to Barcelona, the better."
A little further down the pitlane, there were mixed feelings in the AlphaTauri garage, with Yuki Tsunoda ruing a brake issue that deprived him of a top ten finish.
But de Vries partially made up for the disappointment in the Faenza team's camp with a solid qualifying on Saturday and a clean run to P12 on race day.
There were no points on the Dutchman's score card, but there was an encouraging commendation from Marko.
"This was by far his best weekend for AlphaTauri," Marko acknowledged. "Nyck was much closer to Yuki than before. This is what I want to see from him.
"Yuki was also really good until the brake problems came again. This is something that has to be solved by the team, they have brake problems so often."
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