Sergio Perez joined the Red Bull team in 2021 after spending two seasons at Racing Point and has brought in a lot of knowledge.
Red Bull had signed a few young drivers in recent years such as Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly before bringing in Sergio Perez.
The Mexican driver began his career in F1 in 2011 with Sauber. Perez brought with him a good experience of F1 in Red Bull. Red Bull’s sporting director Jonathan Wheatley thinks that Perez’s arrival created a very different dynamic.
“I guess one of the things that I can bring to the team is this body of experience in dealing with drivers from all sorts of different backgrounds, and all sorts of different levels of experience,” he said.
“We brought quite a few young drivers into the team here. I think more so than most big teams would normally do, and I’ve built a knowledge bank from that, [of] how to support and help the drivers through those transitional years.
“Now, with Checo, [it’s] completely different. [It was] more like when we brought Mark Webber into the team, to be honest. [We] brought in a massively experienced guy, [with a] huge amount of F1 experience.”
“We’ve learned from him. It’s made us stronger. He’s learned from us. It’s made him stronger,” he added.
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The Mexican driver has proved himself valuable on the track in 2021. In the final race of the season, Perez held off Lewis Hamilton and helped his teammate Max Verstappen in winning the championship.
Later, the Red Bull honoured him with the nickname – ‘minister of defence.’
Furthermore, Wheatley laid out the areas where Perez’s experience have proved valuable. “It’s very difficult to make that transition to a big team from a small team. Very difficult,” he said.
“And understanding how to use the tools available to you. The people available to you, and to use them correctly and to sort of separate the wheat from the chaff. This is what a more experienced driver brings to a team. They know what’s important.”
“Out of all the information that they’ve gained over that run or that lap or that race, they focus on what is stopping them going quicker. And of course, Checo is a master of that. He understands it, exactly.”
“I’m really hoping with this change of technical regulations this year Checo’s going to absolutely bed in with the car. He’ll show us what he’s really capable of,” he explained.
