Sergio Perez had been the subject of incessant criticism throughout the 2023 season. With Daniel Ricciardo stepping into AlphaTauri 10 races into the season, it was also speculated that the Australian might take over Perez’s seat. However, as per a recent report by Motorsport Italy, Perez revealed that he wasn’t worried about that at all.
When asked if he was worried about the possibility of being replaced by Ricciardo, Perez said, “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about it much. I was more focused on being able to cover the weekends and do them well.”
Regarding a possible replacement for Ricciardo, Perez said: “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking about it much. I was more focused on being able to cover the weekends and do them well.”
Motorsport Italy
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) December 4, 2023
Perez was absolutely no match for Verstappen throughout the 2023 season. While the Dutchman managed to rack up 19 race wins throughout the year, Perez had just 2 to his name. Even apart from race wins, Perez wasn’t even the second-best driver behind Verstappen in most of the races.
The Mexican driver admitted that those weekends weren’t necessarily fun for him. He made it clear that the only reason why he is in F1 is because he loves the sport and wants to have fun racing. Therefore, to reach that goal, quite a lot has to change.
Perez: “Some weekends were so hard that they weren’t fun. I’m here because I still love what I do and I’m here because I still have a lot of fun. And that’s been my main goal: We have to make sure that things change.”
Motorsport Italy
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) December 4, 2023
It seemed like things had gone from bad to worse from Perez when Ricciardo stepped into AlphaTauri to replace the outgoing Nyck de Vries. It was speculated that given the poor performance by Perez, the Red Bull management might consider promoting Ricciardo to the team. However, that did not materialize.
Sergio Perez wants to learn from his bad days
Despite all the criticism, Perez did have a good start to the season. 4 races into 2023, he was tied on race wins with Verstappen with both of them having 2 wins each. However, things started to go wrong from then on, and Perez went on a downward spiral with the RB19.
Sergio Pérez is the first runner-up to score less than half the points of the champion
2023: Verstappen (575) to Pérez (285) – (49.57)%
1992: Mansell (108) to Patrese (56) – (51.85)%
1997: Villeneuve (81) to Frentzen (42) – (51.85)%
2001: Schumacher (123) to Coulthard (65) -… pic.twitter.com/ohzvDcVCcQ— Holiness (@Big_Data_Master) November 26, 2023
He admitted to the same and said, “I went from fighting for the World Championship to a very complicated situation, without having any confidence in the car.” However, Perez claims that the one thing that he has learned while being at Red Bull is to be mentally strong enough to face these downfalls.
Therefore, Perez wants to use his bad days as a learning tool to improve his racing skills. He claims that he did learn a lot and managed to rescue his season by claiming P2 in the championship. However, Perez would definitely be aiming for something more in 2024.
