Sergio Perez has had a terrible season in 2023 as compared to Max Verstappen, barely holding on to second place in the championship in a year where Red Bull is the strongest it has ever been. Although Perez seems to be regaining his composure in the past few races, his poor results in a large chunk of a season mounted pressure on him.

Perez had qualified on pole in Miami, with teammate Verstappen back in ninth. With the pace of the RB19 and a qualifying setback for his teammate, Perez was confident of a win in the Sunshine State. However, the 3x World Champion Verstappen put up a superb performance to overtake his teammate and win the race ahead of him. Christian Horner said that the race was mentally taxing on the Mexican driver to deal with.

I think that Max winning that race, having been caught out by a red flag in qualifying, starting down in ninth, and that he took the lead within a very short period of time, I think mentally that was quite a brutal one for Checo to deal with.

Christian Horner said, as reported by racefans.net

Sergio Perez is currently defending for second place in the championship, 32 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Contrastingly, Checo is a record 266 points behind Verstappen just ahead, and the gap has incited a lot of media pressure on Perez. Perez will be hoping to turn that around in the upcoming two races.

Sergio Perez says “just a matter of time” for strong results

Sergio Perez is currently trying to come back from a dismal season in 2023, despite being second in the Championship. With his teammate Verstappen 266 points ahead, Perez has had pressure on him to compete for wins since the summer break, but another streak of bad results compounded that pressure.

In eight races after the summer break, Perez could only manage a single podium at Monza in the fastest car on the grid.  Sergio Perez is now trying to make a comeback from this lack of form, with his last two race finishes being in fourth place, excluding his retirement from his home GP in Mexico.

Perez said that his form is returning, claiming that the pace has been strong for the last few race weekends. The Mexican said that if Red Bull manages to put it all together then better results are on the way, saying “It’s just a matter of time.” 

The pace has been there for the last few weekends, but for some reason or another, we haven't been able to put it all together. I think it is just a matter of time before it will come, Brazil was a good weekend for the championship, because we are getting closer to second spot.

Sergio Perez said, as reported by raingnews365.com

Perez has successfully increased the gap to third in the Championship to Lewis Hamilton and will be breathing a sigh of relief. Rumors had arisen that the Red Bull driver would be replaced if he failed to hold Hamilton off, and he’s seemingly waved that threat aside. Regardless, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix winner will be looking for a better season in 2024, to close the tremendous gap between himself and Max Verstappen.

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