'Perez may not be as far behind as Albon, but he's certainly not there yet'

With five races completed, questions remain unanswered regarding Sergio Perez's performance at Red Bull. Despite a strong performance at the Monaco Grand Prix, the driver is repeatedly failing in the qualifying sessions.

Formula 1 experts Scott Mitchell, Mark Hughes and Edd Straw, and former engineer Gary Anderson discuss the form of Perez on the The Race podcast. Anderson agrees with the opinion of the other experts by emphasizing Perez's poor qualifying performances: "A fast qualifying makes you position yourself between less fast cars. Perez is not valuable to Verstappen because of this."

Anderson makes the comparison with a former teammate of Verstappen who succumbed to pressure from the Dutchman. "Something similar happened with Alexander Albon. Perez may not be as far behind as Albon was, but it's certain that he's not there yet."

Expert in the race

"In the race Perez is very good," Anderson continued. "He's an expert in tyre management and has a good understanding of what's needed from him during the race. But he needs to get faster in qualifying if he is to prove himself really useful."