Albers sees dramatic weekend for Perez: 'The story ends somewhere'

Where Max Verstappen showed friend and foe at Suzuka that the weekend in Singapore was just an off-weekend, teammate Sergio Perez performance wasn't as good. In the RB19, he touched Kevin Magnussen, among others, and had to take time penalties. Former Formula 1 driver Christijan Albers saw a dramatic weekend for the Mexican.

"It was a drama," Albers opens in the Telegraaf Formula One podcast. "He doesn't improve through a weekend. Despite having Max Verstappen driving next to him, and basically being able to check off everything in the data. Yet he doesn't manage to close that distance. That distance only increases. And then at some point I say: 'OK, you can't justify this anymore'. The story ends somewhere," he continued.

Albers also compares this situation to previous events: "If you see how destructive [Christian] Horner and [Helmut] Marko have been towards [Nyck] De Vries, I'm surprised how long they continue to hold Perez's hand over his head," Albers concludes.

It was recently announced that Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo will form the line-up AlphaTauri in the 2024 Formula 1 season. So after the 2024 season, three of the four F1 seats are open in the Red Bull family. Only Verstappen has his contract before then.