Sergio Perez says he’s pushed Red Bull “in a certain direction” in order to be more comfortable with 2023 car

Sergio Perez, at least for the first half of the 2022 season, competed with Max Verstappen much better than in the previous season. In Saudi Arabia, he even got the pole position. In Monaco, he out-qualified Verstappen (though perhaps partly due to his red-flag-inducing crash) and then won the race after Red Bull outsmarted Ferrari on the strategy.

After that race, however, little seemed to go his way. He finished P2 twice but also retired twice in the next four races. After being taken out of the race in Austria, it started becoming more apparent that his opportunity had come and gone. His teammate also seemed to have the measure of him again. Perez also did not feel as comfortable with the car at that stage. So, many attributed his struggles to the car being developed away from his comfort zone.

Red Bull conceded that the development, though not deliberately, had not particularly helped Perez. He simply wasn’t as comfortable with the car balance as he was at the start of the season. Eventually, he even missed out on P2 in the championship by just three points from Charles Leclerc. But he still aims to win the championship and admits he’s tried to push the team ‘in a certain direction.

As per Motorsport.com, when asked if he had been working with the team to prevent a dip in form like in 2022, Perez said: “Yes, certainly. There are things that we are going to work on. We believe that the car is already going to be better. I’ve been pushing the team in a certain direction, and we believe we’re heading in that direction. But we’ll see. Once we get the car, it’s all about adapting ourselves to the car and try to maximise it.”

Read More: “First time I’ve heard of it,” Sergio Perez lies in confusion over an experimental F1 rule for the 2023 season

Sergio Perez: Took ‘wrong direction’ with set-up sometimes in 2022

One thing is for sure: If that ‘certain direction’ that Sergio Perez is talking about is towards understeer then Max Verstappen would not be happy with it. Earlier, he had given an interview where he deemed it ‘impossible’ for a car to be fast with understeer. But a car is developed with input from both drivers (in most cases), so a feud over this is unlikely. The Mexican driver took responsibility for some of his struggles in 2022 – and did not blame it all on car balance, but instead on set-up issues.

He said: “Learning from the mistakes we did, I think sometimes we took the wrong direction with the set-up and that’s very important for us to understand. I think we figured out towards the end of the season what we were doing with the car, so that’s been crucial for us. And I think we are we are heading in the right direction with it.”

Now that the team are heading in a ‘direction’ with the car that he’s been pushing them to, one can expect an upturn in performance from Checo in 2023. It’ll certainly be important to his own championship hopes, but also for Red Bull. They are unlikely to be as dominant over the opposition in 2023 as they were last season, such as the aerodynamic testing regulations, and their own reduced wind tunnel time.

In case you missed it:

• “Instructed to let someone else win again,” Fans react as Sergio Perez gets beaten by Jimmy Fallon in a go-kart race
• “Could get you a Mexican license,” Sergio Perez mocks Max Verstappen’s lack of a driver’s license during the Dutchman’s F1 debut

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