27 October 2023 , 20:36
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Sergio Perez believes he and his Red Bull team took the wrong approach with the car in the United States, but feels the gap to those who finished ahead of him last time out is smaller than it might seem.
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.
A victory on home soil would be huge for the 33-year-old, both in isolation and as a way to shake off questions over his future. It would also allow Perez to open up a gap over Lewis Hamilton in the overall standings. He has talked up his chances after what might have been a deceptive race in Austin when he finished fifth but gained a place in the final standings after Hamilton's disqualification.
“We ended up taking the wrong direction with the car, like a lot of people did, even Mercedes, Ferrari," Perez said ahead of the Mexico race. "It's what happens in those sorts of events, we ended up just taking the wrong directions with it. I believe we made some really good 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.
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“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.”
Will Sergio Perez end his winless run this weekend? Have your say in the comments section
Sergio Perez finished on the podium in Mexico City in 2022 (XPB Images/PA Images)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.
“It would be insane [to win]," he said. “That's obviously... that [would] be my biggest dream, to achieve that this weekend. Now [it is] full focus on tomorrow, the practice, and [to] try to get a perfect weekend here.”
Going into the weekend's action, he holds a 39-point advantage over Hamilton with four races remaining. The Mexico City Grand Prix will be followed by events in Sao Paulo, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, with plenty to play for behind runaway world champion Verstappen.