Perez Faces More Criticism: 'He Has Driven 350 Million Laps There' Says Albers

Thursday, 02 November 2023 at 01:00

Updated at Saturday, 18 November 2023 at 21:43

Red Bull F1 driver Sergio Perez received more criticism after the unsuccessful 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Sergio Perez added another bad result to his streak of unfortunate performances in the season 2023 when he retired from the Mexican Grand Prix after a lap one collision with Charles Leclerc.

Multiple F1 personas shared their opinion on the incident since then. His Red Bull Racing teammate Max Verstappen said the Mexican driver could have left more space for Leclerc.

F1 World Champion Jenson Button said Perez could not lift off while he was alongside Leclerc as that would cause even more mayhem in turn number one.

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Mercedes development driver Esteban Gutierrez said the Mexican driver was brave for trying the move around the outside while also mentioning he was probably a bit too aggressive with it.

A former F1 driver, Christijan Albers, also recently criticized Perez's performance in Mexico City, but from a different perspective. He said in De Telegraaf's podcast:

"I'm not a Perez fan, but that's because he doesn't improve through a weekend, while he has all the data of Max Verstappen."

The truth is, Checo should have all the driving data of Max Verstappen available to him. Could it be the case he is just not able to replicate what Verstappen is doing? Albers added:

"Then I find that at some point in qualifying, the gap is too big. I just noticed that he is not performing well enough and does not have the same performance as Max."

Albers did not specifically point to the lap one incident, but rather the overall pace of the Mexican driver who should know the circuit in Mexico City the best out of all the drivers on the grid.