After Red Bull Chief Praises Sergio Perez for Waking Up From His Dream, the Mexican Admits He Can’t Take Anything Away From Max Verstappen

After a continuous streak of disappointing results, Sergio Perez seems to have finally pulled up his socks as he brings in the results that Red Bull wants from him. The team’s chief advisor, Helmut Marko, believes that this improvement can be attributed to the fact that Perez has given up on his championship hopes. After the Belgian GP, Perez showered praises on his teammate, Max Verstappen.

Perez started the race from P2, behind Charles Leclerc, and wasted no time in taking the lead right out of turn 1. However, the lead was short-lived as Verstappen quickly reached the front from P6 on the grid. On lap 17, Verstappen sailed past Perez on the Kemmel straight to take the lead.

From there, it was easy sailing for the Dutchman as he kept pulling away from Perez. When the two Red Bulls crossed the finish line, there was a gap of more than 22 seconds between them. Perez had to be satisfied with yet another P2 behind his teammate.

Sergio Perez explains his gap to Verstappen

Following the race, Sergio Perez spoke to Sky Sports F1 and explained why there was such a huge gap between him and Verstappen. He said that right after passing him, Verstappen took off aggressively and had a much better second stint, allowing him to increase the gap. On top of that, Perez had gone off into turn 11, which increased the gap further.

Perez explained that his car setup was a bit too aggressive, and they did not get much time to practice with the new setup since it was a sprint weekend. Therefore, after being passed by Verstappen, Perez’s main focus was bringing the car home.

Perez appreciated his teammate and said, “There is nothing to be taken away from Max, certainly. He did a tremendous race and has had a tremendous season.” He admitted that Verstappen’s side of the garage has been getting the maximum out of the car every weekend, and Verstappen is to thank for that.

Perez regains lost form

Perez came under a lot of fire following his horrid run of form from Monaco up until the British GP. The Mexican had failed to put his car into Q3 in all of those five races, while his teammate claimed pole position in all of them.

However, he has regained some form as he finished on the podium in Hungary and followed it up with another podium finish in Belgium. Marko believes that Perez has already given up on his hopes of winning the championship and instead focuses on improving his performance.

Heading into the summer break, Perez mentioned that there were quite a few things he needed to get on top of. He also hopes to return to the form he was in at the start of the year.