In the round-up: Former Mercedes team principal and ex-F1 motorsport director Ross Brawn said Red Bull should give
Max Verstappen a more competitive team mate.
In brief
Perez “not putting up much competition” for Verstappen – Brawn
Brawn, who ran Mercedes’ F1 team in 2013 when
Lewis Hamilton arrived as team mate to Nico Rosberg, said Red Bull should have a driver line-up as competitive as theirs was. Hamilton won back-to-back titles for Mercedes in the following two seasons, but Rosberg took the title from him the following year and then retired.
Sergio Perez has
won just two races this year to Verstappen’s 17. Brawn wants to see Verstappen face a stronger team mate.
“What I’d love to see, quite frankly, is is someone more competitive in the other car,”
he told Talksport. “Because unfortunately, Sergio’s not putting up much competition for Max. And even when you get a dominant car, if you can have someone in the other car who’s giving them a hard time and we think of Rosberg and Hamilton, that was a great year in a year when Mercedes were dominating.”
Brawn, the architect of F1’s technical regulations which were introduced last season, is hopeful other teams will narrow the gap to the dominant Red Bull next year. “Even though they have this domination at the moment, you will see it in time,” he said. “And we’re seeing little indications. I mean, McLaren with Norris and occasionally Piastri they’re knocking at the door, keeping them honest, let’s put it that way.
“Over this winter, I’m optimistic there’ll be a reset. When you’re at the front, you have the advantage of being able to start the design of your new car earlier because you’re competitive enough, and that’s where that domination can sometimes run for several years.”