Verstappen: Perez is incredible I wouldn't be a world champion without him

At the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen had called Perez a "legend" for his excellent defense of Hamilton, and after the game, the Dutchman also made it very clear that without Perez he would not have become a world champion.

"I'm sure I wouldn't be sitting here without Checo because Mercedes have enough lead distance during the safety car to choose a pit stop. Checo's performance was incredible. ”

"It was really tough when we started working together and we didn't know how to get it working."

Perez is a "rare" teammate

"Checo quickly proved himself to be a special person, not just because of being able to work closely with him. He's a super friendly guy, a very family friendly guy and I'm happy with him. ”

"He's a rare teammate, he's a real team player and I really want to be able to work with him for a long time."

"In the early days, he had some difficulties in understanding the car. But I think he really did a great job in the final stages. ”

Commenting on missing the constructors' championship, Verstappen said: "I'm sure when you talk to the team you know they really want to win this world championship, but we weren't the fastest all season. ”

"We didn't win the constructors' championship, but we've done our best, we have no regrets, we've got the best results. We lost on the constructors' points, but we won the Drivers' Championship. ”

In the final constructors' standings, Red Bull trailed Mercedes by 28 points to finish second. Perez had hoped to get a podium spot, but chose to retire near the end. But in Red Bull's view, the constructors' championship was not so important at the time.