Perez aims for revenge and sets sights on pole and win in Saudi Arabia

Of course, Perez will come to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in 2023 with a different car, but the RB19 has already proved to be a great weapon in Bahrain and Perez likes street circuits himself. So that combination should be able to be successful on the streets of Jeddah, where Perez unhappily missed out on victory last year.

Pole for Perez?

Perez achieved pole in 2022 and was leading when he went in for a pit stop on lap 15. A lap later, the safety car arrived, causing Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to move up a place at Perez's expense after their pit stops. This year, however, pole is Perez's goal again.

''Yes, certainly that will be my target, to try to be on pole and try to win the race. I think it's important. It's only the second race weekend, so we are in very fine margins. Bahrain was really close between us all. So yeah, looking forward to that,'' Perez informed the press conference.

The downside for Perez is that Verstappen is already more at one with his car this year. Whereas he was still struggling with understeer at the beginning of 2022, there seemed little question of that in Bahrain. The RB19's balance is a lot better and then it remains to be seen whether the Dutchman loses a pole to his teammate.