Sergio Perez says he “fully believes” that he has Red Bull’s backing to challenge Max Verstappen for the world championship this year. “When I first came to the team, things were very different,” said Perez, who joined for the start of 2021. The potential for conflict between the two was made clear during the last race in Saudi Arabia, when Verstappen insisted on going for the point for fastest lap when his engineer had said the team was “not concerned about that”. The Mexican said he believed that would not be the case this year. “Certainly last year when we started developing the car – or basically when we put the car on a diet – that suited Max more,” Perez said.

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