Max Verstappen has won seven of the first ten Grand Prix of the season, but in recent races, he’s had to achieve that singlehandedly.
Over the last few Grand Prix, we’ve seen examples of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes’s driver pairings working together to progress.
However, in the case of the Scuderia, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz got too close to comfort during the Spanish Grand Prix.
Unfortunately for Red Bull, they’ve not been able to benefit from that teamwork for some time.
Sergio Perez may have signed a new Red Bull contract to take him until the end of the 2025 season at the very least, but it’s hard to suggest that the decision was based on his recent form.
Since finishing on the podium at the Chinese Grand Prix – where he was convincingly beaten by Lando Norris before McLaren introduced their biggest set of updates – Perez has only finished in the top seven once.
Speaking on the Formel1.de YouTube channel after the Spanish Grand Prix, Ralf Schumacher has suggested that Red Bull would be better off with Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg as Max Verstappen’s teammate, rather than Perez.
Although the German driver has never won a race – and famously has never achieved a podium – Schumacher believes his skillset would be much better suited to pairing up with Verstappen.
READ MORE: Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg’s life outside F1 from wife to height
Ralf Schumacher thinks Nico Hulkenberg would be a better teammate to Max Verstappen
Talking about the second Red Bull seat, it was put to Schumacher that Nico Hulkenberg could have been a candidate instead of Sergio Perez and he said: “Yes, and in any case, Nico Hulkenberg is in a completely different league, drives completely differently in qualifying.
“So, he is incredibly consistent and that means Max Verstappen could have supported him in a completely different way including in strategy.
“Because now it’s clear that the problem is simply that he doesn’t have anyone as a teammate who helps him except yesterday [Saturday] with the slipstream because of course they did it perfectly.”
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Why has Nico Hulkenberg never driven for a top Formula 1 team?
Reading through Nico Hulkenberg’s F1 career is a selection of some of the strongest midfield teams in the sport’s recent history.
Williams, Force India, Renault and Haas with cameos at Racing Point and Aston Martin highlight his reputation in the paddock as an incredibly dependable driver.
Hulkenberg will be closing in on 250 Grand Prix starts by the end of his first season at Sauber next year.
However, in that time he’s averaged 2.5 points per race without ever troubling the top three.
His single career pole position came more than 13 years ago during his rookie season with Williams but he quickly fell back to finish 8 that day.
Damon Hill has previously suggested this season that Hulkenberg was overlooked by the top teams because of his size.
He’s one of the biggest drivers on the grid, but if he was quick enough teams would have made adjustments for him.
Ultimately, the right opportunities have never presented themselves at the right times.
It would have been easy to see him alongside Lewis Hamilton at German constructor Mercedes for example instead of Valtteri Bottas.
However, he’ll be hoping at 36 years old that his next roll of the dive to join Audi in 2026 will finally end his long wait to stand on an F1 podium.
Hulkenberg’s not going to replace Perez at Red Bull as Schumacher might wish, but it’s a credit to his reputation within the sport that he’s in the conversation to drive for the current champions.
The post ‘Different league’: Ralf Schumacher says winless driver would be better teammate for Max Verstappen than Perez appeared first on F1 Oversteer.