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What can Perez learn from Verstappen? "That's what I need"
Sergio Perez is in his third season as Max Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull Racing. The Dutchman became world champion in both 2021 and 2022 and so, despite already being extremely experienced, the 33-year-old routine driver has undoubtedly learned some things from his teammate. At the press conference in Canada, Perez was asked about it.
What does Perez need to do more so that he can get out of it what Verstappen also does? "Well, I think he's been able to deliver a winning method in qualifying. And he hasn't had a bad weekend at all this year. And I think it's what I need. I cannot afford to have any bad weekends anymore."
The Mexican speaks of two or three bad weekends on his part in 2023. This has increased the gap in the world championship to Verstappen to 53 points, more than two Grand Prix wins. "I think I've had two or three bad weekends in the season. So I really have to get rid of those and keep the consistency high because I think it's something that Max has been really good and consistent throughout this period."
Perez on mistakes made
Looking back at his mistake in qualifying in Monaco, which caused him to miss Q2, he says:"It was completely down to me. I made a very big mistake." And on Barcelona: "t was all down to me. I had a really bad mistake. But then in Barcelona in the qualifying again it was tricky with the damp conditions. We didn't manage to have a good quali, and then we paid the price on Sunday. So I think I'm looking forward to getting back on the form we had in the early season," Perez said.