Max Verstappen has been told that teammate Sergio Perez will likely take a “all guns blazing” approach to competing against him for the rest of the season.
Perez has been Verstappen’s partner at Red Bull since 2021. No teammate has lived as long as the 34-year-old Dutchman, despite the fact that his current contract expires at the end of this year.
The seat is currently his to lose and Perez has begun well, with three podiums from four races so far in 2024. He is backing Verstappen up well, which is exactly what the team wants from him.
Still, there is some uncertainty about his future at Red Bull, especially given the team’s other possibilities. And Sky Sports F1 expert Bernie Collins believes this means the Mexican will race as if he has nothing to lose.
“[Perez] is now the longest-standing team-mate of Max Verstappen,” she told The Fast and the Curious podcast. “Everyone else has been disposed of well before this. So I believe he is thinking, ‘I just need to [go] all guns blazing and not worry so much about it’.
“I almost wonder if they’ll be able to perform at the same level once they start cutting back. So, when they start worrying about avoiding crashing the car or anything, do they lose too much? Last year, there were moments when qualifying performance fell short.
Checo [Perez] spent a lot of time at Force India or Racing Point, attempting to prove that he was good enough to make the top squad. They all have huge self-belief that the rest of us simply do not have.”
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