Sergio Perez played a key role in Max Verstappen's world driver's championship win in 2021, often holding up rival Lewis Hamilton.
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Red Bull Racing’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has lavished praise on Sergio Perez, saying the experienced Mexican ‘didn’t break’ during his debut season with the team.
Perez played a key role in Max Verstappen’s world driver’s championship win in 2021, often holding up rival Lewis Hamilton.
And Marko hinted that Perez’s performances in the races played a key part in their success during the 2021 Formula 1 season.
“It’s clear to us that there is currently no driver who can stand up to Verstappen in qualifying,” Marko told AutoRevue.
“But then you need someone who won’t break – that has happened with Perez.”
That being said, Marko does believe there are areas where Perez can improve. The most obvious of those was his qualifying performances.
As Marko put it, Perez has shown plenty of quality during a race. But the further back he starts, the harder it is to make an impact on the race.
“If you start ninth or 11th, all the qualities he undoubtedly has in the race won’t help you.
“He’s driven at the same level as Verstappen in x number of races, (but) it just fizzles out by the time you’re through (the field).”
Marko also said that in the fight between the ‘number twos’ in 2021, Perez had a clear advantage over Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.
The reason for this? Bottas, while a better performer in qualifying, could not overtake properly in traffic. Perez, by contrast, is much better at weaving through traffic in a decent car.
“That’s the big difference between him and Bottas, who is a loser when it comes to overtaking,” Marko bluntly said. “He’s super fast, but he can’t overtake in traffic.”
Perez is certainly of the opinion that he can do even better in 2022. By his own admission, he at first struggled to get on top of the RBR16.
But once he grew more comfortable in the car, his performances grew better. He expects that to continue in the upcoming season.
“When you come to a team that is already fighting for the title, you see all the mistakes. And probably if you’re in a team that is under the radar a bit more, you don’t see those mistakes as often,” he had told RacingNews365.
“I think it’s just part of the process. But I look forward to take another gear for next year, now that I’m fully adapted with Red Bull.
“I think we matched really well, really quickly, within the Red Bull family. And very early on, Helmut and Christian [Horner, Red Bull’s team boss] told me to not look anywhere else, because they wanted to carry on with me.”
