Interview
'Perez is like a cat, not just with nine lives, but with 25 lives!'
- Cas van de Kleut
It is far from certain that Sergio Perez will continue to be Max Verstappen's teammate in 2025. After securing a contract extension until 2026, there have been many performances that have resulted in far fewer point scores than the Dutchman, along with a lot of mistakes and crashes hindering the Mexican. Dutch professional racing driver Jeroen Bleekemolen thinks the latter is because he is doing things to try and get closer to Verstappen.
For a while now, there has been a discussion about whether Perez should be replaced. Last season, that discussion already started and continued this season. Despite Verstappen being first in the drivers' championship with a 62-point gap to title rival Lando Norris, Red Bull are third in the constructors' championship. Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz, unlike Perez, manage to sit closer to their respective teammates.
Bleekemolen on Red Bull choices around Perez
Bleekemolen said during an exclusive interview with GPblog that he feels as if Perez has already had a huge number of chances from his team: "Somehow it seems like a cat with, I would say, nine lives, but it seems like he has 25 lives. He keeps coming back. We have to remember that he also just drove from last place to first place in a Racing Point at the time. Not in terms of starting position, but he was just completely last in Bahrain [at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix]. He simply won that race at speed without a safety car. So if you think he can't drive, it's nonsense, because he's just a very good driver."
The Dutch driver also stated that he feels it is very difficult to drive alongside Verstappen: "You are going to do things you shouldn't do, you are going to try things you don't want to try at all. It has to come a bit from within yourself. And if you come up four, five-tenths short in one go, you go crazy as a driver. Where are you going to find that? Maybe he has been mentally succumbing to that pressure for some time. And obviously, they could have put him out of the car for longer. But it's a difficult choice because whoever you put next to it, it's not going to be easy for anyone."
Bleekemolen pinpoints 'number 1 option' for Perez's replacement
If Bleekemolen had to choose someone to drive next to Verstappen in Red Bull, it would be Liam Lawson: "What he has shown so far in Formula 1 is fantastic. He's just been strong every weekend. And for me, what he has shown before Formula 1 says even more. Because he has shown in all sorts of different disciplines and classes that he is terribly good. The DTM, Super Formula, Formula 2. With everything, that boy goes hard, so I also think he can adapt well to the conditions. So for me, he is definitely option number one."
Yuki Tsunoda has been in Formula 1 a bit longer. However, Bleekemolen has a clear reason for choosing the Japanese drivers' teammate: "Because Lawson is better. Yuki Tsunoda is a fine driver, but he is not an outside category. Lawson could well be. Whether you then manage to get that out of all of them in the end, especially if you end up driving alongside Verstappen, I don't know. The future will have to tell, but Tsunoda does indeed have the experience. But from the experience, we then also know immediately that he is good, but not an out-of-category driver."
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy
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