Sergio Perez has insisted that he has Red Bull’s “full support”, despite his performances having been publicly criticised by a certain member of the team this season.
There is no doubting that Perez is in an extremely difficult position, even though he has the best car on the grid.
Being alongside Max Verstappen currently is perhaps the biggest challenge of them all, given that the reigning World Champion is in the form of his life.
Perez has largely had to watch on whilst Verstappen has picked up 12 wins from 15 races this season, 10 of which came in consecutive events.
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Largely because Verstappen has been performing at the highest of levels, Perez has received more criticism than he perhaps deserves.
The likes of Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko have publicly criticised Perez this season for not performing well enough, with the Austrian having also thrown the 33-year-old’s 2024 seat into doubt.
Whilst team principal Christian Horner has often defended Checo and has stated that he will remain with the team next season, Marko has had no problem in putting the Mexican under public pressure.
It’s led to several suggestions that Perez won’t be retained for 2024, with Channel 4 F1 presenter Steve Jones believing that the Red Bull driver is under “extraordinary” pressure.
“I was thinking that the pressure you must be under is extraordinary,” Jones said to Perez in an interview for Channel 4 ahead of the Singapore GP.
“It seems to me that sometimes you’re between a rock and a hard place. Helmut Marko in the press recently made a bit of a faux pas, you could say, that would be a good example.
“Sometimes it feels like even your own team are against you. Do you understand what I’m saying? Is it frustrating?”
Despite many believing the exact same as Jones, Perez has insisted that what life is actually like for him at Red Bull is different to what’s perceived from the outside.
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Perez – who celebrated his 250th GP start in Singapore last weekend – has declared that he receives a great amount of support from the Milton Keynes-based team, who are all pushing him “to succeed”.
“I mean, from the outside it might look like that at times, that it’s not everyone in your corner and you might feel like things are harder than it should be,” Perez replied.
“But to be honest, in the team, I have full support and everyone wants me to succeed.”
https://www.planetf1.com/news/sergio-perez-red-bull-against-theory/