A regular critic of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate has taken the opportunity to once again slam Sergio Perez.
Christijan Albers, Dutch like Verstappen, claims the 2023 season finale in Abu Dhabi is yet more evidence that Mexican driver Perez should be ousted.
He says his collision with Lando Norris at the 2023 season finale in Abu Dhabi proves that Red Bull should be on the lookout for a better driver to be paired with the ultra-dominant Verstappen.
"Norris couldn’t go anywhere," he told De Telegraaf. "He got a fright and couldn’t do anything.
"It was going well for Perez at the beginning of the season, when the difference was still about 5-6 tenths to Max. Then we saw him just fade away."
Albers, who raced for Spyker and Minardi, claims that "If Red Bull builds a car that is that good and then you have Perez, then you really have a problem as a team".
He says the way Perez was overtaken on the last laps in both Brazil and Las Vegas proves that a driver is "not worth putting in such a good car".
"I quietly think that there is so much money behind Perez from his sponsors. Ok, it’s Red Bull, but it’s still nice if you’re raking in 40, 50 million," said Albers.
And he warned that if Red Bull’s rivals really do put better cars on the grid for 2024, the Milton Keynes based team "will really have a problem if they’ve built a car that is capable of racing them".
"Then they’d have to put all their cards on Max, and that may not be good for the team," said Albers.
Perez is powerfully backed by Mexican sponsors including Interproteccion, Telmex, Infintium and Claro - many of the energy drink-owned and branded team’s top backers.