Would Max Verstappen still win if the roles were reversed with Sergio Perez at Miami? F1 pundit explains

F1 pundit Mark Hughes believes Max Verstappen's pace advantage in Miami was significant enough for him to win against Sergio Perez without his hard-medium strategy. The Dutchman plowed through the field to win despite having started P9 on the grid in Miami. His teammate took the third pole position of his career after a late red flag in Q3 stopped Verstappen from setting a final lap.

Despite his track advantage over Verstappen, Perez was no match for his teammate, who found incredible pace on the hard compound tires at the start of the race.

Prominent F1 pundit Mark Hughes discussed Max Verstappen's stellar pace on the Race podcast, saying:

"Through the practices, he [Verstappen] looked to have three or four tenths on Perez and although Perez did find quite a bit of time on that Q3 run that stood for pole, it was difficult to judge whether it was real or just track influence. And we would really only have seen that comparison with Verstappen. Yeah, I suspect that Verstappen just had a handy pace advantage anyway, and the circumstances of the way the tyre picture played out just helped him."

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Sergio Perez needs Max Verstappen to suffer poor luck to win the title this year, claims former driver

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher suggests that in order for Sergio Perez to win the championship this season, he would not only need to perform perfectly but also require his teammate Max Verstappen to experience some bad luck.

At the Miami Grand Prix, Perez had the advantage of starting from pole position, while Verstappen began from P9. However, during the race, Verstappen impressively moved up the grid and eventually caught up to Perez before his pit stop. Towards the end of Verstappen's first stint, it became apparent that Perez was not a threat as his teammate began to increase the gap on used tires.

As a result, Max Verstappen won the race comfortably and extended his lead in the drivers' championship. Talking about the dynamics of the two Red Bull drivers in Miami, Ralf Schumacher admitted that Sergio Perez needs a lot of things to go in his favor to win the title this season. He told F1-Insider:

“As good as Perez is doing his job at the moment. I doubt that he can keep it up over the season if Max stays cool. Verstappen is the best driver in the field at the moment, and his team mainly works for him. Perez is particularly good on three circuits – in addition to Baku, this is also the case on the street circuits in Monaco and Singapore. After all, he successfully drew a joker in Baku. To be honest, Perez doesn’t just need luck to win the World Championship, Verstappen needs bad luck too.”

With the Dutchman now 14 points ahead of his teammate in the drivers' standings, it will be interesting to watch their battle develop.