Ex-Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok has revealed that Max Verstappen told his father, Jos Verstappen, that he wouldn’t be beaten by Sergio Perez “ever again” after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Verstappen had to settle for second in Baku behind Perez, in what was the Mexican’s second win from the first four races.
Both Red Bull drivers won two races in the first four events of 2023, convincing many that Checo was a genuine title contender.
Losing to Checo in Azerbaijan infuriated Verstappen, with Chandhok having been told by the Dutchman’s father that the 26-year-old wanted to dominate the remainder of the calendar.
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“I saw Max’s Dad Jos Verstappen in Qatar the evening after Max had won the championship, and we were chatting about the season and he said to me ‘Max was furious after Baku’, and when he came home he said to his Dad ‘I’m not going to get beaten by him ever again this season’,” Chandhok told the Sky F1 podcast.
“He was absolutely livid and he said ‘he will not beat me again’. And low and behold he was right! It was pretty devastating.”
That’s exactly what Verstappen did, as Azerbaijan was the final time in 2023 that he finished behind Perez.
The next 10 races were actually won by the three-time World Champion, which saw him eclipse Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine wins in a row.
Verstappen ended up scoring 290 points more than Perez come the end of the recently completed season, with his 575 points having been enough for Red Bull to win the Constructors’ Championship without even needing Perez’s points.
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His points total and 10 consecutive wins weren’t the only records Verstappen ended up breaking, as the Dutchman’s 19 wins also eclipsed his own record set last year of most wins in a campaign.
To top off the most dominant season in the history of F1, Verstappen broke the record for most laps led, after being in the lead for 1,003 laps during the 2023 championship.
Because of Verstappen’s dominance, Perez was met with significant criticism this year as he was consistently so much slower than the superior Dutch driver.