Christijan Albers has suggested that for Sergio Perez to have any chance of a Formula 1 world title, Max Verstappen needs constant problems.
Perez closed to within one point of his Red Bull teammate in the standings after he took victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix following Verstappen’s qualifying woes. The Dutchman held onto the lead of the standings by doing the fastest lap of the race on his final tour of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Albers, who formerly raced for Minardi, Midland and Spyker in F1 from 2005 to 2007, is not a believer that Perez can take the fight to his teammate over the course of the season without a lot of problems for Verstappen.
“He can do it, but only if Max has problems five, six, seven or maybe eight times,” Albers said, as quoted by Formula Passion.
“If instead, Perez has no problems, it could be a story like that of [Nico] Rosberg and [Lewis] Hamilton in 2016. At that point, it could be possible.”
Glock believes in Perez
Timo Glock is not in agreement with his fellow former F1 driver, however, as he suggested that the reliability strife that his Verstappen in Saudi Arabia could be enough to light a fire within the Mexican.
“Now Sergio sees the possibility of competing with Verstappen and the battle could be on,” Glock said.
“Perez has shown that he has excellent race pace, but at the same time, we have seen that Verstappen is one who doesn’t get told what to do. Both can say what they want, but both will aim for victory.”
