Sergio Perez could make an excellent runner-up for Red Bull Racing, but he must accept that Max Verstappen will always be the faster of the two in qualifying. That opinion is certainly held by Tom Clarkson, host of the F1 Nation podcast.
Clarkson is not only involved with the official podcast of Formula 1, but he is also the man behind another podcast called Beyond the Grid. Furthermore, he is always the host during the press conferences during a Grand Prix weekend.
Perez must accept it
In the most recent podcast former GP2 champion Davide Valsecchi is the guest. The now 34-year-old Italian argues that Red Bull has solved its problem of who should sit next to Verstappen by signing Perez. Clarkson partly agrees. "As long as Perez doesn’t let Max Verstappen’s pace in qualifying get to him, because I think that has been the unravelling of all of Max’s team-mates before. So as long as he accepts he’s slower…”
Still, he does not expect Perez to score his first podium finish at the Imola circuit next weekend. Clarkson suspects Verstappen will grab the win with Lewis Hamilton behind of course. Pierre Gasly in his AlphaTauri should be the surprising number three.