Max Verstappen has continually obliterated anyone who has stood in his way- including his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez. After a sequence of errors on the Mexican’s behalf, Verstappen has moved miles ahead in the championship. According to Christain Horner, the way things stand, Perez can lean back and forget about the title. But the driver thinks otherwise.
Verstappen is a whopping 53 points ahead of Perez, making full use of the misfortunes thrown in Perez’s path. Over three races, Verstappen has only furthered his lead by an insurmountable margin, while pushing Perez further away from threatening him again.
Looking at this shift in the dynamics, Christian Horner gave up on the idea of having both his drivers contend for the title. Speaking to the media after the Monaco GP, he stated, “Looking at the gap now between the two drivers… that will take pressure off his shoulders, and I think that’ll allow him just to now relax, not put pressure on himself and just refind the form that he had in those early races.”
However, Perez refuses to fall for that trap. In desperate need of a silver lining, the Mexican will be the last one to kick his feet up and relax while watching the title slide out from under him.
Sergio Perez is not willing to give up on Max Verstappen battle
Ahead of the Canadian GP, Perez made his intentions known. During the driver’s press conference, Perez refuted Horner’s statements about him.
Disagreeing with Horner, he outrightly stated, “I think we always have to deliver to our maximum and we just have to make sure we deliver. We have a great car and we should be having a lot of podiums, wins and so on, from now until the end of the year.”
Montreal! Let’s do this!#CanadianGP #SP11 pic.twitter.com/3bT0lDAoRe
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) June 16, 2023
Acknowledging that the competition is starting to breathe down his neck, Perez promises to shake it off. Thus, he sets the tone for the important weekend ahead of him.
However, his confidence may have taken a hit. Coming off a series of bad race weekends, Perez rues the Canadian weather his rivals are doing a rain dance for.
I definitely expected more from this weekend, I think the podium was possible, but it was important to secure the points and not to take more risks.
Now is time to rest a bit and focus everything on Canada.Sin duda esperaba más de este fin de semana, creo que el podio era… pic.twitter.com/5ljhqqdFNg
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) June 4, 2023
Unsure if he’d be the fastest in Montreal, despite having a Red Bull in his hands, Perez has an eye out for competition. “It’s a tricky race track. We’ve seen in Barcelona things are getting closer and certainly there’s always one or two teams that can get really close. And especially with how the weekend is looking, it’s looking really damp, so it will only get things a little bit closer.”
Verstappen shares golden advice to his teammate
While Perez has already looked at his teammate for inspiration, Verstappen didn’t hesitate to share a few words of wisdom of his own. And it’s as simple as focus.
Verstappen had explained, “I found it difficult to comment on that because I don’t know what’s going on in his head.”
Raise your hand if you are excited that tomorrow is RACE WEEK!
📸 @GettyImages pic.twitter.com/tr4woivSpr— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) June 11, 2023
Reflecting on Perez’s difficulties, Max Verstappen gave his two cents on the situation. “I learned from a young age that it is always better to focus on yourself and do the best you can because all the other things are out of your control anyway. So there is no point trying to focus on that, that is also how I approach it as well.”
As Red Bull has time and again proven to be the ones to beat, fans await Perez to return to his form akin to what we saw at the beginning of the season. Hopefully, the Canadian GP presents an opportunity to close the gap.
