Max Verstappen has conceded he sympathises with Sergio Perez's struggles this year and insisted his Red Bull team-mate is "not an idiot" in the face of "harsh" criticism.
Perez's position with the Milton Keynes-based outfit has been hanging by a thread for the majority of the season despite signing a new contract during the campaign, with a number of disastrous qualifying runs leaving his race opportunities in tatters.
The Mexican's failure to come close to matching his world champion team-mate left Red Bull behind new constructors' champions McLaren and runner-up Ferrari in the standings, and while talks are set to take place now the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has passed, Perez was at least defiant in suggesting his contract for next year remained.
With suggestions that this isn't the case and Liam Lawson is instead being promoted from RB, with Isack Hadjar making the step from F2 to partner Yuki Tsunoda, Perez would be left without an F1 seat.
Asked whether he was expecting a new team-mate for the new term, Verstappen replied: "I don’t know, this is up to the team.
"I always worked really well with Checo, he is a great guy honestly. It is very rare that you have a team-mate like him who has always been very good and just a nice guy too."
Verstappen defended Perez on numerous occasions in the infancy of his struggles with the RB20, with the Dutchman instead pointing to difficulties with the car - issues which would strike for both drivers after the summer break and leave the four-time champion frustrated himself.
Claiming Perez "100%" suffered with the car this year, Verstappen added "I do" have sympathy for the position he has found himself in.
"I work with him every weekend, week in, week out and I find people have been very harsh on him," he added.
"Of course, there are some weekends that maybe could have been better naturally, but sometimes people have been very harsh on him, because he's not an idiot.
"He's always been regarded as a great driver, and it's been tough, but it's been tough for everyone in the team because sometimes it was just very difficult to drive."
