Will Verstappen help Perez now? 'Let's not get into that situation'

Sergio Perez is in a fierce battle with Lewis Hamilton for second place in the world championship. Will Max Verstappen help his teammate secure his team's first ever one-two in the World Championship? The 26-year-old Dutchman gives no clear answer in the press conference in Sao Paulo.

With three races (and a sprint race) to go, the Red Bull Racing driver has a 20-point lead over the seven-time world champion. That margin was much larger, but has shrunk considerably over the past few weekends. The gap would have been even less if Hamilton had not been disqualified in the United States.

To help or not to help Verstappen?

Last year, roughly the same situation occurred in Brazil. Perez was then competing with Charles Leclerc for P2 in the championship. The Mexican asked if Verstappen could pass him in the race so that he would score more points. Verstappen refused (as he said he had 'good reasons' for doing so), which made Perez angry.

What will that be like in 2023? "Good question. At the end of the day, I think that it shouldn't always matter on me to get the points, but I'm confident that in Checo, that he can stay ahead, because I do think that, on average, we have the faster car. And I think also last year, it wasn't really well spoken about before we got into the race weekend. But yeah, let's just hope that we don't get into that situation, I think is better for everyone," Verstappen said.

Victory not easy

In Brazil, Verstappen is aiming for his 17th win of the season. Asked about his expectations for the weekend, he replied. "Last year we didn’t have a great race weekend here. And now, with also the Sprint format, makes it quite difficult to straightaway be on top of things. We had a few ideas why last year was not that great but one practice session to make sure it’s better this year. I think there’s a lot of high-deg here, and the way you have to set up the car, a lot of low-speed corners. I don’t think our car is particularly, let’s say, amazing in the low-speed corners, so I guess we’ll find out," he said.