Tip for Perez: "That has been the unravelling of Verstappen's previous teammates"

In Bahrain, Red Bull Racing was the fastest team, but Mercedes took the win and the most points. In Imola, Red Bull will want revenge and the best man for the job is of course Verstappen. In the podcast, F1 Nation Valsecchi puts the Dutchman on top.

Favourite in Imola

"I don't think Verstappen will lose a chance to win and take the lead in the championship. It's very important for Red Bull to take an early lead in the standings. So I think Verstappen for the victory. I guess second for Valtteri Bottas and third for Lewis Hamilton," said the former Formula 2 champion.

However, that prediction does not include Red Bull's second driver. "We are forgetting Perez at the moment. He might not be 100 percent comfortable with the car yet and maybe not good enough to deliver a result in qualifying, but in Bahrain, he drove the best race in the field with so many overtakes and he was faultless. That was podium-worthy."

Perez had a strong first weekend for Red Bull Racing in that regard, although it didn't look like it at first. In qualifying, he missed out on Q3 and his car crashed out before the start of the race. In the race, however, he fought his way back up to fifth place, which earned him many compliments from Valsecchi.

Perez slower than Verstappen

"Mentally he is in a perfect position. Nobody expects anything special from him in qualifying, because everyone thinks he is already beaten by Verstappen. In the race, however, he has strong pace, characteristics to race hard, overtake and be a good attacker. He's perfect alongside Verstappen and gives a huge help for Red Bull Racing."

Tom Clarkson does however place a caveat on the Italian's praise. ''As long as Perez doesn't worry about Verstappen's pace on Saturday in qualifying. That's what has been unravelling of Verstappen's previous teammates. As long as he accepts that he is slower," the presenter concludes.