“If Max Verstappen would have joined Mercedes, he would have had the same issues like me”– Sergio Perez feels even his teammate Max Verstappen would have struggled while joining a new setup

Sergio Perez feels Max Verstappen would have had the same problems if he had joined Mercedes last winter instead of staying at Red Bull.

Perez switched to Red Bull at the end of 2020 after seven years with Force India/Racing Point and was met with a radically different car.

The switch from a low to a high-rake strategy and the switch from a Mercedes to a Honda power unit contributed to Perez’s turbulent campaign, in which he appeared lost at times while achieving a lot of solid results at others.

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Given his years of experience and knowledge of Red Bull’s car and ideology, the Mexican believes new F1 champion Verstappen would have faced a similar difficulty at Mercedes.

Perez was asked if the Honda PU, and not simply the car’s aerodynamic design, had played a role in his problems, and he responded: “Yes. Of course, even as a driver, you underestimate those things until you live them, you experience them.

“Driving a different power unit, it’s an entirely different task. Driving a completely different car philosophy with a higher rake versus a lower rake is an altogether different task.

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“The way you approach things is just significantly different, and you have to learn new techniques. What I used to do, nothing worked here [with Red Bull].

“It would be the same, for example, if Max went to Mercedes. They [the cars] are just very different. They produce very similar lap times, but the way they get the lap time is extremely different.”