“Verstappen-Perez is same as Senna-Prost,” Sergio Perez’s father makes shocking comparison, claims Checo is at par with Max
Antonio Perez has said his son and Max Verstappen are like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at a recent interview.
Follow Us
Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez is indeed at the topmost point in his career at this moment. The Mexican was contemplating an early exit from F1 due to the lack of a seat at any of the teams at the end of the 2020 season. Then, he got a surprise call from Red Bull as the Milton-Keynes-based team dropped Alex Albon to take him up. The rest, as they say, is history. In his debut year itself, Sergio played a major role in earning Max Verstappen his first-ever World Championship against seven-time title winner Lewis Hamilton. In 2022, he seemed to give his teammate a run for his money at some races, and now, he has come up as Max Verstappen’s direct challenger.
With five races having already been held in the all-new 2023 season, the statistics are still in favor of Max Verstappen. But Sergio Perez is not very far behind the Dutchman. At the season opener in Bahrain, Max snatched the lead while Sergio outperformed him in Jeddah. Then Max had yet another victory in Australia followed by Checo winning in Azerbaijan. This back-and-forth between the Red Bull duo built up to a point where, going into the Miami GP, Perez was only 6 points behind Verstappen.
If Perez had won at the Miami GP after getting the pole position there, he would have come to lead the World Championship standings for the first time in his career. Alas, Max did wonders with his RB-19 on hard tires and climbed up from P9 to P1 in 57 laps. Now, Sergio Perez’s father, Antonio Perez, has commented on the ongoing title combat between his son and Verstappen. Using Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s analogy, Antonio said, “You have to remember when McLaren had Senna and Prost . This is the same. Today we are living it again. They are two tigers, gram for gram, in the same cage. They both think the same, have the same breakfast, eat the same.”
Antonio reckons Sergio Perez would have been a World Champion had he entered Red Bull earlier
When Sergio Perez came into Red Bull to take up the seat beside Max Verstappen, he was already 31. In Formula 1, most racers retire before they reach their 40s, and the early 20s is the prime time to advance towards the World Championship. But Checo never got his hands on a title-worthy car when he was young. So, his father said, “If Checo had had this opportunity from the beginning like other young drivers have already had, he would be world champion several times, I have no doubt. And I believe that we have Checo Pérez for the next 10 years and I see him as a world champion.”
With Sergio Perez’s defeat in Miami at the hands of his own teammate Max Verstappen, he has fallen back and is now 14 points from catching up to the Dutch on the points table. But only 5 Grands Prix have been held, and 18 are yet to happen. Thus, it remains to be seen how the Mexican rises up to the challenge after shrugging off his disappointment from the Miami GP to beat Max Verstappen in the upcoming races.
In case you missed it:
Stay Updated!
Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)