Following a protracted battle, Sergio Perez pipped Lewis Hamilton to second place in the Drivers’ Championship last season.
Sergio Perez has cautioned Lewis Hamilton and his competitors that the lessons learnt from a difficult 2023 season will make him a better driver in 2024. Despite having dominant equipment under him, the Red Bull driver failed to win any of the season’s final 18 races, but restored his form during the year’s final three Grands Prix.
The Mexican started the season with two victories in four races before claiming pole position when F1 visited Miami. The next day, however, Verstappen thrashed Perez as his Red Bull teammate went on a 10-race winning streak, effectively cementing his claim as the team’s bona fide number one driver.
While Verstappen built an insurmountable lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship, Perez found himself fighting for second place with Lewis Hamilton. The 33-year-old sealed Red Bull’s one-two finish in the penultimate round, but he remained 290 points behind his teammate when the chequered flag flew in Abu Dhabi.
Despite these setbacks, Perez feels his challenges will serve him well in 2024. “I’m aware of the year I had,” he said. “I think I’ve learned a lot, and I’m happy with that on how we managed to turn our season around and really come out of it stronger than before and making good use of those bad days.”
Perez was quick to emphasize the significance of the Qatar Grand Prix in turning around his season. This was the lowest point for the Red Bull driver, who was eliminated in Q1, crashed out of the sprint race after colliding with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon, and finished P10 due to a track limitations penalty in the Grand Prix.
“It was such a hole this year that we really got together after Qatar and we understood a lot of things we were doing with the car,” he told reporters. “So I think that’s been really, really good for us.” It was unfortunate that it occurred, but in other ways, it was beneficial since it greatly reinforced our team.
“Because Qatar was the worst weekend I’ve had in a long time in the sport, and probably the worst weekend I’ve ever had in the sport.” It was such a dreadful weekend that I genuinely felt like ‘I cannot be this bad, there’s something else going on’. So we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong with the car.”
