34-year-old F1 driver told he isn’t doing enough for his team right now

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Despite finishing on the podium in Saudi Arabia, Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has been told he needs to do more to close the gap to his teammate.

Not much has been seen of Max Verstappen on track so far this season despite already having two race wins to his name.

Speaking on The Chequered Flag Podcast, Harry Benjamin has explained what expectations the 34-year-old is currently dealing with.

Perez still needs to do more for Red Bull despite Saudi podium

Back-to-back second places finishes are the least that is expected of Sergio Perez right now.

Red Bull have the quickest far on the grid by quite some distance this season once again.

Max Verstappen is one win away from matching his own record for most consecutive victories.

While Perez finished behind him in the Drivers’ Championship last year, there was still a big gap between the two of them.

The 34-year-old is still not as quick as he would like in qualifying, something that Christian Horner has told him he needs to improve in the future.

Harry Benjamin suggests Perez still needs to do more to prove himself to Red Bull despite a good performance in Saudi Arabia.

He made one key error and admitted he didn’t follow his team’s instructions after picking up a penalty for a pit stop infringement.

While those errors don’t matter now given Red Bull’s dominance over the rest of the field, if the gap begins to close then he needs to improve his displays.

Perez always under pressure alongside Verstappen

Speaking about the Mexican driver, Benjamin said: “Well, the expectation is for him to be second and to be utilised strategically if and when needed by Red Bull.

“If Verstappen for whatever reason comes into trouble during a race and is prevented from taking the win, they need Perez there and capable of taking the win.

“Or, they need to use – much like what we saw from the two Haas – teamwork to sacrifice one for the other.

“Today, better from Perez, but still needs more in my opinion.”

Sergio Perez will hope he can continue his run of second places when the F1 paddock moves from Saudi Arabia for Australia, but ultimately the Red Bull driver will want to start adding race wins to his repertoire too.

That seems very unlikely given how quick Verstappen currently is in the RB20, but it only takes one mistake or reliability issue for Perez to be the man expected to take the chequered flag.