Perez gives big compliments to Verstappen: 'Made a huge step'

"This is the best Max I have seen, the way he pushed the team and how hard he worked during this year. There were a lot of periods during the year where we looked really far [away] and he would push the team in all the areas, in all the aspects. I think Max has made very big steps out of the car. I think his talent and his speed has been there since day one, but how he reads the races, how he works with the team, how he pushes the team, I think that's the biggest step that he has done in these past years," Perez told the press conference before the Qatar Grand Prix.

Perez on Red Bull Racing

The weekend in Las Vegas did not go as sparkling for Perez as it did for Verstappen. In qualifying, the Mexican didn't get beyond P16, which meant he did not advance to the second part of qualifying. Afterwards, he blamed the car. Perez complimented the team in Qatar.

"We’re working as a team, especially the last few months we've had similar issues with the car, so we're pushing in similar directions to try and improve the car, and at the end of the day, we are working as a team. The team knows exactly what we've done, where we are, and I think we're working well together," he concluded.

This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton