“You don’t wanna be that far away from Max Verstappen” - Former F1 driver reckons Sergio Perez should be ‘alarmed’ about his Red Bull seat

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert reckons that Red Bull driver Sergio Perez is in an "alarming" situation given his deficit to his teammate Max Verstappen in the first half of the season.

Perez's season up to the summer break has been marred with botched qualifying efforts leading to inconsistent results on Sundays. He has also been considerably outpaced by the two-time champion, who is in a league of his own.

While Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has been critical of the Mexican driver's results, he and Christian Horner have reiterated on multiple occasions that his seat is not under threat. However, 3x F1 race winner Herbert has admitted that he would be "worried and very uncomfortable" if he was in Perez's shoes.

"It's alarming for Perez," Herbert told OLBG. "You don’t want to be that far away from your teammate for sure. If I was Perez, I’d be worried and very uncomfortable. Verstappen is very happy with the situation because he’s not under pressure or being challenged in any way, but Red Bull know they’ll need someone that will be consistently at the top when the other teams get more competitive."

Johnny Herbert knows how Sergio Perez feels as he has been in such a situation when he was paired alongside F1 legend Michael Schumacher at Benetton in 1995. Schumacher won nine races en route to his second championship, while Herbert racked up two wins and two podiums and yet lost his seat at the end of the season.

The Brit has suggested that only Perez can turn around the situation if he finds the consistency of his teammate Max Verstappen. He said:

"We're halfway through the season and he's still not able to find that extra speed, there may be certain races when he can, but he can't find the consistency like Verstappen. Only Perez can turn things around."

Midway through the 2023 season, Perez is 125 points behind his teammate, as he looks to reduce the deficit in the second half of the season.

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Eddie Jordan believes Max Verstappen would have the edge over Lewis Hamilton in the same car

Former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan reckons Max Verstappen would have the edge over seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in the same machinery.

Jordan made the comments while discussing with David Coulthard about the two 2021 title rivals as teammates. While Jordan is impressed with the Mercedes driver this season, he believes Max Verstappen is currently in the sweet spot of his career.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in the Canadian GP

“But I think Max is at that sweet spot for age, experience, belief, knowledge, the people he’s been around with the team – he’s in a very solid, safe structure.” Jordan said on Formula for Success podcast.

“It’s going to take some job to knock him off that perch, and I think that in the same car right at this moment, as we speak with the same ages [they are now], then it has to be Max.”

Coulthard agreed as he compared the duo to the Ayrton Senna-Alain Prost pairing at McLaren.