After Sergio Perez’s disastrous Monaco GP outing, many fans spoke about Karma catching up with the Mexican driver in the Principality. Max Verstappen, however, refuses to admit that watching his teammate struggle around the streets of Monte Carlo gave him any ‘pleasure’. Ahead of the Spanish GP race weekend, the Red Bull ace shut down suggestions of any rift between the two.
Perez’s (alleged intentional) crash during last year’s qualifying in Monaco affected Verstappen’s session and eventually cost him a potential win. As a result, when he crashed out this year during Q1 and started the race P20, fans started talking about Karma. Perez didn’t fare much better in the race, as he finished P16, being lapped by Verstappen twice in the process.
One year on from Sergio Perez crashing out at the end of Q3 in Monaco, what are your thoughts now?
Did Checo crash on purpose?
— Aldas🇱🇹 (@Aldas001) May 25, 2023
Verstappen, however, wasn’t happy to see his teammate struggle. During the press conference ahead of the Spanish GP this weekend, he denied feeling pleasure whatsoever from his teammate’s miserable weekend in Monaco.
Max Verstappen is more worried about Red Bull than Perez
Verstappen is the most dominant driver in F1 at the moment. He won both the 2021 and 2022 world championships but doesn’t want to stop just yet. Of course, he wants to outshine everyone else on track and that includes Perez. The fact that Perez is the closest to challenging him for the world title this year, should have played an even bigger factor in making him feel happy about the 33-year-old’s disaster outing.
However, for Verstappen, the team’s success matters more. Perez didn’t score any points, which limited Red Bull’s overall haul, despite him winning the race. Verstappen said, “I think mainly just the team, of course, they want to score more points but that’s Monaco, you know, it can bite you. I’ve been in that position myself.”
Talking about a potential battle with Perez in the races to come, Verstappen’s response pointed towards a long road ahead for both parties.
Verstappen won’t give up on Perez challenging him for the title
So far, we are only six races into the 2023 F1 season. With sixteen more rounds to go, Verstappen feels that anything is possible. Red Bull is the most dominant team right now, with his own performances at a whole other level. However, in the future, this could swing in the favor of Perez, or any other team.
“For me it doesn’t really change anything,” he said. “It’s a long championship. You need to be very consistent. You can barely afford mistakes, especially when it’s only one opponent because best case is you win, worst case you’re second, so you can’t really lose too many points like that.”
Verstappen heads into this week’s Spanish GP as the favorite to win the race once again. As he said in the press conference, his aim for the rest of the season remains to finish seven points ahead of the next-best driver, in every single race.
