Red Bull gives Perez advice to match Verstappen

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has offered Sergio Perez advice amid his performance slump against Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman has dominated the campaign en route to his third Formula 1 World Championship, which he picked up last month in Qatar.

Perez has struggled for form throughout the campaign and currently holds a 32-point lead over Lewis Hamilton as he aims to end the season second in the Drivers' Championship.

Perez is under contract for next year's campaign but question marks have been raised over his future beyond his current deal.

Speaking to the eff won podcast, Horner acknowledged that Perez has one of the toughest jobs in F1.

"Being a teammate of Max is the hardest job in the paddock,” he said.

“Checo has done a great job next to Max during the last three years.”

Horner's advice

Horner has advised Perez to ignore Verstappen's data and instead focus on his own performance within the car.

“When you're looking at the data of what Max is doing, you've only got if you look at a race like Japan,” said Horner.

“The very first lap that Max does out of the pits is two seconds quicker than the rest of the field.

“And you're looking at that data and you're thinking, ‘How has he done that? How has he done that?’ And so often, that will happen.

“The problem is for Checo, he's trying to compare himself to Max and what he needs to do is forget about Max.

“[He needs to] just focus on himself, don't even look at his data. Just focus on being the best you can be.

“As we saw earlier in the year, some sometimes that can be good enough.”