Pérez’s Red Bull move will make life “much more difficult” for Mercedes · RaceFans

What they say

Speaking ahead of the FIA ​​gala, Hamilton said he was impressed with Perez’s driving this season and said it would be a tactically important endorsement for Max Verstappen:

With all due respect to Alex [Albon], in the races we’ve had, it’s been Valtteri and me [Bottas] against Max.

I’ve been in the position Max is in, particularly when he was at McLaren, where he was the lead car and the second car wasn’t in the fight. So when we were fighting Ferrari, they were really able to move with the strategy and make it a lot more difficult for us.

So I think naturally this makes Red Bull stronger, particularly with the way Sergio is acting. I think Sergio has driven incredibly well this year and he really deserved a boost. So he was so, so, so happy to hear that one of the best teams hired him and gave him this opportunity.

I think it will be an exciting battle to see him take on Max, and that will make it that much more difficult for us as a team. So we’re going to have to step up our game because that’s going to be a battle that we haven’t seen for a while in terms of having the two drivers fighting us. But we enjoy it as a team. That’s what we work for, we love the challenge and it will make it that much more exciting.

On this day in F1

• Today 15 years ago, Fernando Alonso, who had just won the Renault world championship, made the surprising announcement that he would be joining McLaren at the end of 2006.