- Things are not looking good for Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen
- Their relationship is on the rocks
- Perez is making a brave move towards winning the title this season
Red Bull team driver Sergio Perez is eyeing the 2023 championship title as his relationship with fellow driver Max Verstappen tenses up.
After winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last weekend, Perez took to Twitter where he expressed his desire to take on Verstappen, albeit indirectly.
The latter finished second owing to a problem with his drivetrain. Perez said that he is both challenged and encouraged to make history this season.
“It was tougher than I thought, but in the end I’m happy to get my fifth victory in F1. Very happy with the result of the team. We are going to keep pushing very hard. I want to be a champion,” read the tweet.
Sergio Perez. Photo/Autosport
He later pulled it down raising more eyebrows as to why he did and the nature of his relationship with Verstappen.
Verstappen is optimistic about making a third successful run in this year’s championship after finishing the 2022 season with 146 points. Perez completed the season in the third position.
They have each won a race since the 2023 season started. The Dutch driver won the opening Grand Prix in Bahrain while the Mexican beat him to the second one in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Verstappen wasn’t as pleased when Perez won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. His father Jos didn’t recognize the Mexican following his win.
Further, there was tension after Perez demanded that Red Bull perform a review following knowledge that Verstappen got an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap.
It was after this that he posted his tweet citing his ambitions to win the championship this year and later deleted it.
He posted a similar tweet, only that this time around, he steered clear of his ambition to win the title.
“It was tougher than I thought, but in the end I’m happy to get my fifth F1 victory. Very happy with the result of the team. We will continue to push very hard,” read the ‘toned down’ tweet.
It will be an interesting show to see how the two Red Bull drivers get along. Verstappen was unhappy with his team after finishing second at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Verstappen urged his team to put in extra effort to ensure increased dependability and trouble-free weekends.
He finished just five seconds behind Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez who finished first in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after qualifying in 15th place on the grid.
Max Verstappen. Photo by Planet F1
After practice, Verstappen appeared to be in a position to rule the weekend after dominating all three sessions. However, a driveshaft issue with his RB19 in Q2 forced him to start last.
After weaving his way through the pack in the early going, Verstappen’s mission of returning to the podium eased up courtesy of a Safety Car intervention in the middle of the race.
But, Perez held strong with a five-second lead until the checkered flag. Verstappen expressed his dissatisfaction with having two straight race weekends that haven’t gone smoothly on his side of the garage.
This is despite leading the championship by a single point coming out of Saudi Arabia. According to Verstappen, the speed of his car isn’t the only thing he is worried about, but a car in a good state too.
“It’s not only about the pace of the car, we need to make sure that we are reliable without any issues. I mean, my first weekend was not very clean because of the big balance shift from testing to the race weekend, and some other things which were going on in the background,” he told the media in Jeddah.
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