Perez aims to “fight for the win every weekend” in 2023

2023 F1 season

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Red Bull driver Sergio Perez says his target for the 2023 season is to be in contention for the victory at every race weekend.

Perez enters his third year with Red Bull in 2023 after two seasons in which his team mate, Max Verstappen claimed the drivers’ championship. He just missed out on second place in the championship last year, being beaten by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the final race in Abu Dhabi.

While Perez took two victories over the season, in Monaco and Singapore, but was soundly beaten by Verstappen who set a new record for most wins in a single season with 15. Perez says his goal for this season is to be in contention to win every race.

“I want to maximise the car potential that we get,” he told media including RaceFans. “I want to be fighting for the winning every weekend. I’m really working hard for it and that’s my main target.”

After being outpaced by Verstappen so often in 2022, Perez says he has worked hard with the team’s engineers at their Milton Keynes factory to analyse how he can close the gap this season.

“I have done a lot of work with the engineers over the winter to make sure we understood those races,” he explained. “We took some directions with the setup that perhaps were the wrong ones. I think towards the end of the year we understood them.”

Near the end of the season, Perez’s relationship with his team mate was strained by an incident in the Brazilian Grand Prix, when Verstappen refused to allow Perez through on the final lap under team orders. However, the pair both claimed that they had aired out their grievances before the following race in Abu Dhabi to clear the air and Perez says both he and Verstappen recognise their team’s interests must come first.

“It’s important to work as a team,” said Perez. “I think in that regard, it’s very clear. We want to maximise the team effort. It’s not all about Max and myself, it’s about the team.

“We have so many people back in the factory giving everything for us, so we have to respond in that regard. I’m working very hard on my side with my engineers to make sure that we are able to go on to the next step.”

Having been the dominant team of last season, Perez says it is too early to tell who Red Bull’s main rivals will be in 2023.

“It’s really hard to know at the moment. Certainly Mercedes have been very competitive towards the end of the season, similarly Ferrari – so I will expect them to to be up there. I know obviously there are some midfield teams that are making big steps over the winter, so we’ll see once we are in Bahrain.”

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2023 F1 season

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Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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32 comments on “Perez aims to “fight for the win every weekend” in 2023”

  1. Aha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

    Ha.

  2. Loading screen tip: By driving faster you don’t drive slower

  3. Was he not fighting before?

    1. I understand RB forgot to put that in his contract.

  4. Aww, that’s cute!

  5. All I want from Perez is that he pays back to Max for not letting him through when Sergio’s 2nd championship place was on the line. I hope he does it cunningly when it will hurt Max the most.

    1. What kind of revenge do you talking about? On most occassions Verstappen is simply faster even if he’s somehow behind he doesn’t really need Perez to be “told”, Max is able to overtake with or without Sergio being nice. Of course Perez can fight and resist like he did against Hamilton but if he ever does that he’s out, that’s simple.

      1. Yep you are 100% right (sadly)…

  6. Of course you will Sergio … until you are told it is time to be a good little boy and follow team orders.

    1. I actually think this is rather more meant to be that his aim is to be on the pace so much that he is in a position to fight for the win every weekend (since yeah, he will not be allowed to fight for any wins that RB need Max to win) @nullapax

      1. He was in that position for a while early last year, until they developed the car away from him.

        1. Naughty Neutral
          5th February 2023, 19:23

          Onder developed a car to be faster, not to match a driver. Some drivers simply handle certain cars better.

          The rest is just wishful thinking.

  7. Naughty Neutral
    5th February 2023, 13:14

    Oh, I’d love to see him fight the other number twos… Last year he was fighting the fives and sixes mostly… Enough points to end up in the top 3, but not entirely convincing

    He’s a good driver. But I’m not convinced he’s number 1 material…

  8. He doesn’t have the talent to be in that Redbull. Lovely bloke, a dream teammate, for obvious reasons.

    1. If you mean by Verstappen standarts then no. But in Red Bull standarts yes

    2. It’s true. Heck.. if he couldn’t fight for wins every weekend in that RB18, I really doubt he’s going to make a step up this season. His process on analysing where he keeps falling short of Max is great… but Max is a moving target, and this season he will have another 20 races where he doesn’t know why he was slower than Max.. and his analysis cycle will start again. Honestly, even if he figures out where he’s lacking to Max, executing those insights is not really something Perez is capable of.

      He should readjust his approach to fight for P3 every weekend. That’s as good as it gets for him. He’s not a championship contending driver.. just a support a driver at best.

  9. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
    5th February 2023, 14:39

    Elsewhere Verstappen doesn’t even mention his name as a person he expects to challenge him this season.

  10. Perez 2.0 brought to you by Bottas 3.147 Rev ZG-final_really-final_sure-I-am-gonna-win-this-time.

    1. Coventry Climax
      5th February 2023, 18:26

      It’s not Perez 2 or Bottas Pi, it’s both Perez i and Bottas i, with i standing for imaginary number. (Look that up at Wikipedia, if you’re not that mathematically proficient.)

  11. Proud_Asturian
    5th February 2023, 18:50

    Close sources say that Perez will lose his chance at the championship because the season began.

  12. Good target, but the reality could again prove different once the season gets underway.

  13. Reminds me of Bottas 2.0

  14. Oh Sergio. My jaw hurts from laughing too much

    1. Exactly

  15. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

  16. He is a funny guy. He shouldn’t be on the grid, was as good as finished, got a miraculous chance given extraordinary circumstances at RedBull. I have said it before, 30-40% of the current field has to go imho. If you want to be the pinnacle of Motorsport you really have to up the level of contestants (which will take making major adjustments to the entire funnel of talent coming through. Organisations as FIFA are supposed to drive these kind of improvements in line with societal developments. Come on guys, you can do so much better.

    1. Ahum: *FIA

    2. There’s no driver field in the world that matches the talent level of the F1 driver field.

  17. If you buy a lottery ticket, you’re in contention of winning the lottery. And, possibly would have a better chance of winning than Perez has of beating Max.

  18. Even Perez will buy a ticket and bet on Verstappen winning the championship; not himself

    We know, Sergio…

  19. Just let Daniel take over from here Sergio.

  20. Last years incident was an eye opener for Perez. There is no team when it comes to max. Amd i think he now realises that. Plus while the team gives perez a competitive car its not really to his liking… So yes ge will need to up his game and take the fight to both his own team and max and the rest of the f1 field. Being ruthless is what makes champions…

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