Lewis Hamilton mentioned he’s “so completely happy” to see Sergio Perez earn a chance with Purple Bull, which he says will put the staff in a stronger place to struggle for wins in 2021.

Perez will companion Max Verstappen in 2021 after being confirmed as Alex Albon’s substitute. Albon struggled for type this season and, regardless of two podium finishes, was typically a good distance off the tempo of his teammate, leaving Verstappen to struggle the Mercedes drivers on his personal.

Against this, Perez capped off a standout 2020 marketing campaign along with his first F1 win on the Sakhir Grand Prix and Hamilton mentioned his type deserved a transfer to a stronger staff.

When requested if he’s excited by going through a extra skilled Purple Bull, Hamilton mentioned: “Yeah undoubtedly.

“With all due respect to Alex, within the races that we have had it has been me, Valtteri [Bottas] towards Max. I have been within the place the place Max is, once I was at McLaren once I was the lead automobile and the second automobile wasn’t within the struggle. After we had been preventing towards Ferrari, they might mess around with the technique and make it rather a lot tougher for us.

“Naturally, this makes Purple Bull stronger, notably with the best way Sergio is performing. I believe Sergio has pushed extremely properly this yr, and really deserved a drive. I used to be so, so, so completely happy to listen to he was taken on by one of many prime groups and given this chance. I believe it will be an thrilling battle to observe him up towards Max.

“That is going to make it a lot tougher for us as a staff, we’ll have to actually step up our sport, as a result of that is going to be a battle we have not seen for a while, having the 2 drivers there preventing towards us. However we relish that as a staff, that is what we work in direction of, we love the problem and it will make it that rather more thrilling.”

Verstappen mentioned Albon’s stronger efficiency on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when he put stress on Hamilton late on, confirmed the good thing about having two aggressive vehicles at each race.

“I do not suppose it will change something from my efficiency, but it surely’s extra we’ll have a second automobile which is able to being up there, the entire race, attempting to place a little bit of stress… for instance in Abu Dhabi, on the finish Alex was fairly shut and it simply prevents, more often than not, Mercedes attempting to go for an additional cease of no matter, and I am in additional issue.

“More often than not once we had been aggressive this yr, I used to be the one automobile attempting to beat them and attempting to do one thing completely different. However they’ll all the time do the proper technique with certainly one of them, as a result of they’ll cowl me with one automobile.

“It was all the time a bit bit troublesome to struggle them, I hope that Checo will to begin with in fact, push the staff ahead but additionally to maintain me on my toes, which is all the time good, to have a team-mate pushing you, it is thrilling.

“Hopefully with a bit extra of a aggressive begin, hopefully make it simply extra fascinating and troublesome for them to make selections.”

When requested if he had a say within the ultimate determination, Verstappen mentioned: “In fact we spoke about it, I simply gave my sincere opinion. I believe it was fairly clear that all through the entire yr, it was generally fairly tough for Alex.

“He is an amazing man, I am completely happy he is a part of the staff nonetheless. However on the finish of the day, it is Helmut, Christian and naturally Dietrich making the selections. I knew a bit earlier than, however on the finish of the day, that does not matter.”