Both Johnny Herbert and Billy Monger have assessed Sergio Perez’s form this F1 season so far, as he looks to take the fight to Max Verstappen in the championship battle.
Perez is currently 15 points off of Verstappen at the top of the championship standings, with the Mexican having to fight through the field in Australia last time out from a pit-lane start, after an issue in qualifying.
He did a decent job of damage limitation but, with Verstappen starting up at the front and obviously in possession of the Red Bull RB19, his Dutch team-mate also did as much as he could to take the opportunity to build up a little bit of a lead.
In these early stages of the campaign, it would appear that we could be set for a season-long duel between the Red Bull team-mates for the world championship, and certainly neutrals will be hoping Perez can take the fight to Verstappen, for fear if he doesn’t that we could be in for a processional year right at the front of the field.
For Monger and Herbert, who have recently launched new F1 podcast Lift The Lid, this year represents a golden chance for Perez to take that first-ever world title, and they have assessed his chances of doing so:
“I think it’s fair to say that Checo is in the latter stages of his Formula 1 career to a certain extent – he’s not the new kid on the block anymore. He’s one of the more experienced drivers in Formula 1,” Monger told GIVEMESPORT.
“So maybe with a car as good as the Red Bull is, he sees this year or the next couple of years as his window to achieve a childhood dream of being F1 world champion.
“Do I personally think that, across the season, he can beat Max Verstappen? My gut probably says no, because we’ve only seen glimpses of speed from Sergio. We’ve seen the odd race where he gets it all together but with Max, it just seems like every weekend he just wins.
“In Saudi, Max came through from 15th to second and if he’d beaten Sergio then you would have definitely gone, ‘ok Max is going to win the championship,’ but Sergio had good race pace. And he actually kept the gap to Max at about five seconds so that was the most promise I’ve seen from him but whether he can replicate that week in, week out, my gut says probably no. I think Max has got the edge but who knows.”
“It’s the best we’ve seen of him so far in his career,” added Herbert. “If I go back to his Racing Point time, he was always consistent in a car that was less competitive than what he’s in at the moment.
“But it’s like Billy says, you’ve got to do it every single race, you’ve got to shine even at your least favourite circuit as well. That’s what Max has done. That’s what [Ayrton] Senna did, that’s what Lewis [Hamilton] does and what all the greats of the sport do.
“They can do it every session and at every single circuit they go to and get the best out of the car. And even when it is a bad day, it’s second place that they earn. And that’s where they’re able to get those championships under their belt.”
Billy Monger and Johnny Herbert have recently launched the Lift The Lid podcast to give the inside track on being a racing driver. Subscribe to the Lift The Lid podcast here via your favourite podcast platform.
