(Motorsports news) With just half as many points as teammate Max Verstappen, who captured an astounding 19 race victories as Red Bull completely dominated with its RB19, Perez finished second in the 2023 championship. After a strong start in which he won two races and nearly passed Verstappen in the standings, Perez’s championship challenge came to an abrupt end in June due to growing concerns about his future with the team—his current contract expires in 2024—caused by his ongoing troubles.

Perez believes that breaking the pattern of not adjusting to Red Bull’s car changes over the year would be crucial to landing a new deal. Perez was rather honest about the difficulties he encountered in 2023. “I want to be able to hit consistency, to build a platform,” he stated. “Progress is what we were lacking this year. I had a great start to the year, just like Max. However, I was unable to keep track of it during the season. At times, if anything, I regressed.

So, making progress through the season is probably my top priority.” Throughout his three years with Red Bull, Perez has struggled to modify his driving style to meet the specific requirements of the vehicles’ development, a task Verstappen is better at. This has been a recurring theme. After failing to find a proper set-up direction in Friday practice, Perez had a mountain to climb in order to reach the car’s capabilities, and he would frequently start race weekends on the back foot.

These issues started in Barcelona in 2023, the first of five weekends in which Perez was unable to qualify in Q3 with the best car in the competition. He said, “I felt like the car was different and I had to think a lot more about how I was driving than ever before,” in response to a question regarding what changed with the RB19 from the Spanish Grand Prix onward that made it so difficult for him. “Well, it was the year’s slight turnaround.

“We had a great start to the year, winning the first five or six races, but after that, we were unable to advance the car as a team. And I believe that’s something I really need to work on improving on next year. It’s something I missed this year. “These issues have helped me comprehend how I was setting up the car and which way to go when I encounter troubles. Therefore, I believe that it will undoubtedly make us stronger in the upcoming year.

After a terrible Qatar Grand Prix weekend, Perez convened a three-day brainstorming session in Milton Keynes as a starting step, but he believes more progress can be made in the off-season. “During the winter, we’re going to take the time with the engineers to go through things,” he said. “Aside from that, we will simply concentrate intensely on ensuring that we can advance with it during the season. That seems to be the primary concern.

“If you think about how we started the year, if we were able to keep progressing through the year, we would have had a much stronger season.”

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