Ex world champion blames 'SUFFERING' Sergio Perez for fuelling Max Verstappen fire

Verstappen dangles a carrot for Perez to force mistakes — Photo: © LAT Images

Sergio Perez

Ex world champion blames 'SUFFERING' Perez for fuelling Verstappen fire

The reigning world champion has been unstoppable ever since his team-mate stated his title intentions

Joe Ellis

Wednesday 5 July 2023 09:57

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Jacques Villeneuve has blamed Sergio Perez for Max Verstappen's domination of F1 in 2023.

The two-time world champion extended his championship lead to 81 points by completing a clean sweep of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

After four rounds of the season, though, Perez had won as many races as his Red Bull team-mate and vowed that he was in the title race.

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Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion, believes that moment is what fuelled Verstappen's unbeatable streak which has seen him win five races in a row.

Max Verstappen's points tally exceeds that of every other manufacturer across both drivers

Mistakes are not an option

"Sergio began to drop in performance immediately after he had said. "Now I will fight to win the championship"," Villeneuve said to Gazzetta Dello Sport.

"In my opinion, that declaration gave Verstappen another boost. And he, on the other hand, began to suffer and make mistakes.

"I don't know. I know that every rider has to understand what his level is. And Sergio isn't at Max's level. Yes, he's capable of going as fast as him, but not over the whole season.

"If you say one thing like that, then you can't make mistakes like you did here in qualifying on Friday.”