Ahead of this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Sergio Pérez is set to duel Charles Leclerc for second in the Drivers’ Championship, the Mexican driver has revealed his “regret” at bursting out against Max Verstappen following the pair’s incident at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The final laps of the race at Interlagos last weekend were some that Red Bull will want to forget, after Verstappen blatantly defied team orders.
Following a messy race by his standards, Verstappen found himself in seventh place in the closing stages of the race, whilst Pérez was ahead in P6.
Pérez allowed Verstappen past to see if the Dutchman could overtake Fernando Alonso or Leclerc, under the condition that if he failed to pass either then he’d need to return the spot to Checo.
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The double World Champion failed to do either, resulting in the Mexican understandably hitting out at Verstappen after the race.
Pérez immediately after the race told his team that Verstappen showed “who he really is”, with the 32-year-old seemingly disappointed with his team-mate.
Verstappen and his family have been subject to outrageous online abuse following the Brazilian GP, something which resulted in the Dutchman announcing in the pre-weekend press conference that it has to stop.
Checo has also revealed that he wishes he hadn’t said what he did about the 25-year-old but added that F1 is a “very emotional sport”.
“Obviously F1, it’s a very emotional sport,” Pérez said ahead of the finale.
“And there is no other sport where you can speak yourself live, and it’s only in F1 this happens. So there’s a lot of emotions going on in a lot of things to say.
“I obviously regret a lot of things I said after the race because I am back with Max in the relationship we used to have, and we are both on the team and everyone is ready to move forwards.”
Pérez continued to discuss the situation that unravelled late on last Sunday in what he labels as a “very difficult situation”.
Many pundits believe that Red Bull clearly didn’t discuss the circumstances enough prior to the race, something Checo perhaps agrees with after believing himself that the incident could’ve been dealt with “better”.
“Everyone was put in a very difficult situation there, within Max, within the team, myself,” Pérez said.
“I think we could have handled the situation better. We will obviously learn from it and do things differently in the future.
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“And that’s the way you should be – every team around the paddock is learning.
“Luckily it was just the last 100 metres of the lap I found out he wouldn’t give me back the position. It obviously was a bad feeling.
“But I think I’m able to put all of this behind us. My priority is to have a good environment to work in and to be able to trust my team-mate, to trust my team. And that’s my priority.”