Sergio Perez makes ‘wrong direction’ admission after more misery for Red Bull driver.
After a challenging few weeks, Formula 1 star Sergio Perez is anticipated to face increased scrutiny as he looks to win his home grand prix in Mexico City.
Sergio Perez feels the gap between himself and the people who finished ahead of him the last time out is not as great as it might seem, but he and his Red Bull team feel they took the wrong approach with the car in the United States.
Perez won two of the first four races of the 2023 Formula 1 season, but hasn’t won since. Team-mate Max Verstappen has come out on top in all but one of the remaining races to lock up the drivers’ championship with time to spare, with Perez a distant second going into this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
For the 33-year-old, a win on home soil would mean a lot, both individually and as a means of allaying concerns about his future. Additionally, Perez would be able to pull ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the standings overall. After what may have been a misleading race in Austin, where he finished fifth but moved up to the final standings following Hamilton’s disqualification, he has exaggerated his chances.
Prior to the race in Mexico, Perez stated, “We ended up taking the wrong direction with the car, like a lot of people did, even Mercedes, Ferrari.” “That’s what happens in situations like that; we just ended up going in the wrong directions.” I think we made some excellent progress.
“I think the gap in Austin was a lot smaller than it really showed. Finishing P5 on the race, I think we were all within a tenth, maximum two-tenths, the top five, top six cars. I think we just lost some direction with the Sprint event.
“But we definitely made some good progress and we understood. I said after Qatar that we had a very good few days back in the factory, went really deep on the details, and we understood a lot of things.
“We were trying to compensate for our issues that were actually making the results worse. I do believe we are back in contention.”
Last year, Perez qualified fourth on the grid in Mexico City and turned that into a podium finish. He has added eight podiums this season, but none in the last four races, and made no secret of how big a return to form in front of his home crowd would be.
“”Winning would be absurd,” he declared. It goes without saying that accomplishing that this weekend would be my greatest dream. Right now, all attention is focused on tomorrow, the practice, and attempting to have the ideal weekend here.
With four races left, he leads Hamilton by 39 points heading into this weekend’s competition. After the Mexico City Grand Prix, there will be competition in Sao Paulo, Las Vegas, and Abu Dhabi, all of which will be competitive for reigning world champion Max Verstappen.