Sergio Perez On Racing With Max Verstappen: 'Have To Raise My Game In 2022'

Sergio Perez has praised F1 world champion Max Verstappen, calling his Red Bull teammate a "very complete" racer, before adding "I have to raise my game for next year."

Perez played a crucial part in Verstappen winning his maiden F1 world title. Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to snatch the championship from the Brit in the final lap.

Perez, who joined Red Bull as Verstappen's partner ahead of the 2021 season, has admitted that his teammate pushes him to "new levels."

"He's really good. He's really at one with the car. He's very good at qualifying, he's really good at the races. He's very complete, experienced. I mean, the season he has done I think it's been a legend, you know, it's really impressive, and big praise to him. He's really at one with the car," Perez told Autosport in an interview.

While Red Bull bagged the driver's title, the Austrian team failed to win the Constructors' Championship that went to Mercedes. Red Bull finished 28 points behind Mercedes in the Constructors title and Perez admitted that he lacked consistency throughout the campaign.

"It hasn't been easy, but it has brought me onto another level, and having Max as a team-mate it really pushes you to new levels. I'm enjoying it a lot at this point in my career, I'm very happy, and that's the most important. When you are out of position and so on... I think the main thing I lacked was the consistency to constantly be at 100% with the car. I have to raise my game for next year. And yeah, hopefully, we are all able to go forward," added Perez.

Perez went on to say that Verstappen's title win meant a lot for him.

"Honestly it does, because Max has been a great teammate since day one to me, and the team has been fantastic to me. And I was in a position to support my teammate," he said in the same Autosport interview.

During the qualifying of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Perez had sacrificed his flying lap to push Verstappen on the pole. Perez then held off Hamilton for quite a few laps in the race to allow his Dutch teammate to cover up the gap.

When Hamilton finally passed Perez, Verstappen had already gained as many as six seconds.

"Checo is a legend," Verstappen was heard saying on the team radio at the time.

At the end of the title-winning race at Yas Marina Circuit, an overjoyed Verstappen called Perez the "best teammate."

"I also want to say thank you to Checo, he's been a brilliant teammate," Verstappen had said in a post-match interview.