Sergio Perez will be Max Verstappen’s fourth partner at Red Bull, following Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon.
Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen had formed arguably the best driver lineup on the grid in 2018 and since then, Verstappen has found it tough to compete against Mercedes single-handedly.
The entry of Perez will rescue Verstappen’s plight and help Red Bull be highly competitive again, according to former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde.
Albon was riddled with a car that wasn’t to his liking last year and never truly acted as an able second driver for the team. He has, however, claimed that he is targeting one of 4 spots on the grid.
Keeping up with Checo ? Wrapping up his first drive with the Team ? #ChargeOn ? pic.twitter.com/e55eh3Si7e
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) February 23, 2021
“Max is, of course, a winner and one of the best drivers on the grid. But Perez is not very inferior to him – some, but not much,” van der Garde said.
“There will be a gap between them now and then in qualifying, but Perez is especially strong in the race.
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“He is good at managing tyres, strategically strong, and always fast on Sundays.
“I think he can play an important role on those days. I also do not rule out the possibility he will sometimes be very close to Max in the races. But that’s a good thing because that’s how you push a team to a higher level.
The former driver added that Perez would be huge for the team as Verstappen would be able to learn a lot from him owing to his experience.
“In addition, Max can only learn and improve from strong mutual competition,” he said.
“He will no doubt see things with Perez that may be of interest to him. All in all, the arrival of Perez is a huge plus for the team,” he said.
“Max has had to do everything on his own in recent years. He could never even try a different strategy. That is possible with Perez now.”
Don’t you mean fourth partner Steven? Did you forget about Gasly?
Apologies.
Third partner, really? That’s some exceptionally poor journalism.
Its a bit bad when the first line of the article is wrong. Have you not heard of Pierre Gasly?
Apologies.