It would take five races for Sergio Perez to find his feet at Red Bull Racing. He was proven right, as he took victory in the sixth race. It was mainly thanks to Max Verstappen's retirement, but the Mexican was on point for the entire race.

Perez quick to pick up the pace

Perez had correctly estimated the time he had left to acclimatise to his new team. In Baku he did exactly what the team expects of him. A buffer between Verstappen and Mercedes and when Verstappen drops out of the race he takes the win. Moreover, the teammate of Verstappen climbed to third place in the championship and Red Bull did excellent business in the constructors' championship.

According to Jan Lammers, Perez is in a fantastic position at Red Bull. "He gets all the space to develop, also because everyone has the image that Verstappen is faster," said the 50-year-old Lammers in the NOS Formula 1 Podcast. "In the race he kept the pressure on Verstappen. Perez can do anything and nothing is required, within reason then. In terms of speed, he really picked it up quickly."

Copy of Verstappen

The former Formula One driver thinks Perez's choice to focus initially on Verstappen's set-up was a good one. "You get a graph pressed into your hands and then you see that Max actually has something magical. If you then look further you see where you are equally fast, faster or slower. That works very constructively."

However, this approach can also have disadvantages. "Of course you then become a copy of Verstappen, but you don't become as good as the original," Lammers said. "On the other hand, Perez has the ideal teacher next to him. Everyone calls Verstappen a terrifying teammate, but I would rather call him a dream teammate. He shows exactly where you can still improve."