Albers sees Verstappen dominating: 'That hype did dent'

Perez won both the sprint race and race on Sunday in Azerbaijan and so sounds were everywhere that Verstappen may have a serious rival on his way to his third consecutive Formula 1 world championship. Albers can only laugh at that and argues that it is not realistic to think so.

"If you start analysing the race, it's just very simple. You can see that Max got the upper hand of those three or four tenths. He started on the hard tyres and then you see the difference. The problem with Perez is that he is not consistent enough. He can't consistently drive those same lap times. Max can, with him there is only a tenth difference per lap, while Perez can be half a second slower one lap than the next," he believes in De Telegraaf's F1 podcast. "That's where you just really see the difference."

Perez needs to watch Rosberg closely

Between 2014 and 2020, Lewis Hamilton won six world titles, only his then teammate Nico Rosberg was too strong for him in 2016. According to Albers, Perez must hope for a similar season, in which he himself picks up all the crumbs left by Verstappen when he is unlucky or makes mistakes.

"Now I do have to be honest and say that I did think Nico was a bit more competitive. Nico was not a bad driver, he really had it together and so he could really take on Lewis. I still see a difference in that between Max and Checo. There really is still a big difference between them," said the 44-year-old Viaplay analyst, concluding,"You get a certain hype that is created [after Perez's wins in Baku] and that did take quite a dent this weekend."