Sergio Perez has acknowledged the “problem” it is going to be to topple Max Verstappen in 2024, as he targets going one higher than his runner-up spot final 12 months.
The Mexican seems nicely positioned to get one other crack at difficult for the drivers’ title he craves, alongside his three-time champion crew mate at Pink Bull Verstappen, and can hope the shape he confirmed in the beginning of 2023 can proceed this time round.
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Perez began final season brilliantly, taking two pole positions and two wins from the opening 5 races. However thereafter his problem for the title got here unstuck, thanks primarily to his inconsistent efforts in qualifying.
Adamant that he doesn’t wish to play second fiddle to Verstappen for a fourth marketing campaign in a row, the 33-year-old advised media previous to the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that he was decided to enhance on his runner-up spot from final season no matter how tough it might be.
“That’s the principle goal for me as a result of I’ve already completed second,” he mentioned. “My foremost curiosity is to do one higher. I’m conscious of the problem that it’s, we’ve acquired to actually take this winter time to attempt to begin the season on a excessive and be capable of keep that stage of consistency all through the season.”
The earlier marketing campaign threw up all types of challenges for Perez and, regardless of serving to to assert Pink Bull’s first ever one-two within the constructors’, he nonetheless wound up 290 factors behind his championship-winning crew mate within the standings.
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However the Mexican was additionally eager to elucidate that he had among the best vantage factors in working alongside Verstappen, and was eager to study what he might from a driver who has been so dominant lately.
“Undoubtedly there are belongings you study from [Max],” Perez defined. “Clearly I’ve the very best reference on the market as a result of he was the one who was so aggressive, so I feel there’s no hurt in taking a look at what he’s doing, how he’s doing it, attempt to study and enhance.
“[You can] see what works for you, what he’s doing in another way to you. I’ve all the time had a really open method and I feel it’s one thing that works nicely.”
Perez additionally confronted loads of exterior stress in 2023, amid speak that his seat might come below risk ought to his performances not enhance – stress that ramped up when former Pink Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo returned to a front-line drive with AlphaTauri halfway by the season.
With that in thoughts, the six-time race winner was additionally capable of clarify what he felt he had realized about himself in what was a rollercoaster marketing campaign.
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“I feel it’s in regards to the automotive, it’s about how I used to be making use of it and the way I could make higher use of it – by the weekends, by totally different circuits and all of that,” he defined.
“I feel I made quite a lot of progress along with my engineer in understanding methods to maximise the efficiency of the automotive.”
