Former McLaren boss: 'Verstappen is public enemy number one in Mexico'

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Former McLaren team boss: 'Verstappen is number one enemy in Mexico'
21 July at 09:11
Last update 21 July at 11:22
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  • Cas van de Kleut

Sergio Perez expressed at the start of the season that he wanted to compete for the world title this year. Ten races have now been run, and we can say with some certainty that the Mexican is not going to beat Verstappen, much to the dismay of Mexican fans. In fact, according to former McLaren team coordinator Joaquin Ramirez, the Dutchman is "Mexico's number one enemy," he told ESTO.

Disappointing Perez

Verstappen's teammate started the season very strongly, with two wins in the first four races. Then things went downhill for Checo. He did not manage to win a race since then, and in the past five race weekends, the Mexican did not even manage to buy into Q3.

"I feel sorry for Sergio, because we saw he was really close to Max's level," begins Ramirez. "I feel sorry for Sergio because we could see he was close to his level there. In past races he was one maybe two tenths off the three or four that Max had over him, but then came another race like we saw in Miami and for Max it doesn't matter where he qualifies because he's going to be winning races anyway, it's a really amazing thing."

'Verstappen reminds me of Senna'

The former McLaren team boss himself has some nice words for Verstappen: "Max always reminds me of Ayrton Senna, what he does now in my day only Senna could do, so it's good that every now and then you have those drivers who are really out of the ordinary."