"So far that combination has delivered": Sergio Perez-Max Verstappen combination gets the backing of former F1 team boss

Former Alpine F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer claimed he would stick with Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen's combination in Red Bull despite Carlos Sainz being on the market.

The Mexican driver has been with the Austrian team since the beginning of the 2021 season and has played a key part in their Constructor's success in 2022 and 2023.

However, his contract with Milton-Keynes outfit is up at the end of the 2024 season, with news of no extension from either the driver or the team as of now.

While appearing on the RacingNews365 podcast, the former Alpine team boss defended Sergio Perez's position within Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen and said:

"For me, the only thing, and Carlos has done a brilliant job he's a great driver is when you introduce that element of newness you don't know what you're going to get when Checo you know exactly what you have," he said (19:13-19:22).

"If you introduce Carlos, maybe he's close to Max maybe if that's the case you have more of these cases where I've run into them I shouldn't have. You know what I mean. So the only reason I say it is so far that combination has delivered," Otmar added.

Max Verstappen reflects on his 'near miss' with Sergio Perez in Miami

Max Verstappen stated that he was 'aware' of the near miss at the start of the Miami GP with Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and claimed that they both were lucky to continue in the race.

As per Autosport, the Dutch driver said:

"I was very aware. I turned in and I saw him lock up. And I looked after the race, there was like a scratch on my diffuser. So something must have hit. But yeah, it was very close. Could have ended in a disaster, of course, for the team as well. So yeah, lucky."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner termed Perez's move as 'optimistic' and 'pleased' that the damage was averted with Max Verstappen and others, adding:

"His start was optimistic. Charles didn't have a great start ahead, I think that caused Checo... he had to lift for Charles and then he had a window into the first corner," Horner said.

"He went for it, obviously got in very deep, and was lucky not to collect Max at the first turn and not to collect the Ferrari coming back onto the track. So I was pleased to see most cars survive that," he added.

The damage from the potential crash would been catastrophic for the team as both drivers would have failed to finish the race and would have seen their rivals McLaren and Ferrari close up the gap to them in the Constructor's Championship.