Perez outlines 'biggest step' in Verstappen at Red Bull

Sergio Perez believes 2024 is the "best season" Max Verstappen has put together of the four years they have spent in F1 together at Red Bull.

The 34-year-old outlined where he feels the Dutchman has made the "biggest step" in their time as team-mates, arguing those improvements have mainly been off track.

Verstappen wrapped up his latest F1 drivers' championship in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, raising him to the same plane as all-time F1 greats such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, and Alain Prost, all of whom have also won at least four titles consecutively.

The 2021 campaign, Perez's first with the team and when Verstappen won his first crown, was a contentious and controversial season that went down to the wire against Hamilton, who was on the precipice of claiming a record eighth F1 drivers' championship.

The following two years were considerably more straightforward for Verstappen, with 2023 turning into a historic feat.

It was the most dominant campaign seen in F1 as Red Bull marched to 21 grand prix victories from 22 rounds, with 19 of those by way of the 27-year-old.

However, the past term is the one that stands out for Perez, who was quick to hand his team-mate high praise for what he has helped the team achieve.

In contrast to 2023, despite starting the season in much the same form, Red Bull has struggled to get on top of the RB20, which has shown itself to be a difficult and uncooperative chassis.

"Max has done his best season I've seen from him in these four years," the six-time grand prix winner told media including RacingNews365.

"The way he pushed the team, out of the car, how hard he worked during this year, especially there were a lot of periods during the year where we looked really far and he would push the team in all the areas, in all the aspects. Max has made very big steps out of the car.

"His talent and his speed has been there since day one, but out of the car, how he reads the races, how he works with the team, how he pushes the team, I think is the biggest step he has done in these past years."