Sergio Perez SNUBS Christian Horner advice in stunning F1 title claim

Sergio Perez ponders as Christian Horner looks on angrily — Photo: © LAT Images

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Perez SNUBS Horner advice in stunning F1 title claim

The Mexican has ambitions of his own

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 9 December 2023 09:57

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Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has said that his target for the 2024 season is to beat his supreme team-mate Max Verstappen to the world championship title, despite a warning from Christian Horner.

The Mexican has been largely outperformed by Verstappen over the three seasons that they have spent together at Red Bull, with the dominant Dutchman claiming three consecutive world championships.

Perez, meanwhile, claimed his highest ever position in the standings last year (second) and secured Red Bull's first ever one-two in the drivers' championship.

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He did, however, only claim two victories in what has been described as the 'most successful car of all time', while Verstappen took 19 wins in a record-breaking season.

Sergio Perez won two of the first four races of the season, before falling away

Max Verstappen cruised to his third consecutive world championship title in 2023

Sergio Perez has been under pressure to keep his seat with the world champions, after a difficult 2023

Perez looking to beat Verstappen

Red Bull team principal Horner recently told Perez that he should stop focusing on Verstappen quite so much, and instead should provide the Milton Keynes-based outfit with the 'best version of himself'.

Now, Perez is seemingly not taking any notice of that, setting out his ambitions to win the 2024 title.

“That’s the main target for me,” Perez said when asked about winning the championship. “I’ve already finished second, my main interest is to do one better.

“I’m aware of the challenge that it is. We’ve got to really take this winter time to try to start the season on a high and be able to maintain that level of consistency throughout the season.

“Our relationship is really good,” he said on Verstappen. “I think the whole engineering, when we are in all those briefings through so many races, I think it’s been good.

“We’ve been pushing at times in different directions, but at the same time we’ve [often] been strongly asking for the same stuff. So that also has been positive for the team.

“Definitely there are things that you learn from him. I think I have the best reference out there because he was the one who was so competitive.

“So I think there’s no harm in looking at what he’s doing, how he’s doing it and trying to learn and improve, see what works for you that he’s doing differently to you. I think I’ve always had a very open approach and I think it’s something that works well.”