With Sergio Perez struggling far more than Max Verstappen in a Red Bull RB20 which became tricky to tame, Christian Horner likened it to the Michael Schumacher at Benetton days.

While Verstappen earned the lead driver status across his time with Sergio Perez as his Red Bull team-mate, it was in F1 2024 that Perez fell into his most alarming form spiral, concluding with his departure from the team after the season ended.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez like Schumacher at Benetton

Perez finished the season P8 and 285 points behind Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship, Verstappen securing his fourth World Championship title in a row.

Red Bull and Verstappen started F1 2024 in trademark dominant fashion, but would fall back into the pack from there with balance issues emerging in the RB20.

However, Perez said his “driving style” had worsened his struggles in the RB20, while claiming Verstappen’s style made him less sensitive to the issues.

And speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Verstappen demonstrated how he can “drive around problems” during that Red Bull dip, comparing Perez’s struggles to do the same to how Michael Schumacher’s Benetton team-mates suffered.

Schumacher won his first two World titles with the team in 1994/1995, as part of a stint with the Benetton squad running from 1991-95, after which he joined Ferrari.

“We’ve seen some issues that have been aerodynamic issues that actually, when you really peel sort of the layers of the onion back, they actually go back to 2023,” said Horner.

“And I think that Max, due to his his uncanny ability to drive around problems, has been able to deal with it, whereas it affected Checo much more.

“Almost to the point where a little like perhaps the Benetton era, in the sort of the early 90s. Michael could drive that car, but whoever else got in it seemed to really struggle with it.

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“Max has that ability to just drive around a car that has these sensitivities.

“We seemed to see all the signs of it in the build-up to Monza. But really when you took the downforce off the car in Monza, how much it highlighted the disconnect that there was between the front and rear axles, and the numbers that we were expecting to see on track were just miles out from where our simulation tools were.”

Perez’s Red Bull departure saw Liam Lawson called up to partner Verstappen from F1 2025, while Isack Hadjar steps up to Racing Bulls after his runner-up finish in the 2024 F2 Championship.

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