Sergio Perez needs Max Verstappen to have bad luck if he wants to win the title this season

According to former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, besides being perfect himself, Sergio Perez will need Max Verstappen to have bad luck if he is to win the title this season. Perez started the race on pole position in Miami while teammate Max Verstappen was in P9.

Throughout the race though, Max Verstappen made his way through the field and was right on the tail of his teammate before Perez pitted. During the end of Max Verstappen's first stint, it became evident that Perez wasn't going to challenge as his teammate started pulling out the gap on used tires. In the end, it was an easy win for the Dutch driver as he extended his lead in the drivers' championship.

Talking about the dynamics of the two 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.”

Max Verstappen deserved the win: Sergio Perez

After the Miami GP, Perez admitted that he tried everything possible, but at the end of the day, Max Verstappen was just too good and deserved the win. He said:

“Yeah, I mean I tried – I gave it all. I think the first stint was really poor with the graining that we had on that initial pace. And that compromised quite a lot of our race. We didn’t have too much of a difference on tyre, and Max was particularly strong today, so a well-deserved win for him."

Perez added:

"We had a bit of a fight on track which was quite clean – to the limit but clean – but putting the team in front of us," he reiterated. "Again, a great team result but today Max deserved the victory because he was the strongest car out there."

Perez has now fallen 14 points behind Verstappen in the championship and it will be interesting to see if he can turn things around in Imola.