Marko explains why Perez no longer compares himself to Verstappen: 'He gave that up'

Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko has revealed why Sergio Perez struggled so much in comparison to Max Verstappen in last season.

2023 was a year of ups and downs for the Mexican, who started the season off in strong fashion before tailing off dramatically as F1 arrived in Europe.

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However, team-mate Verstappen completely ran away with the championship with 19 wins from 22, while Perez struggled to keep up.

The 34-uear-old’s poor run of form was echoed by him not making an appearance in Q3 for five straight races between Monaco and Silverstone.

Marko reveals Perez struggles reason

Nevertheless, Perez was able to finish second in the standings to achieve Red Bull’s first one-two finish in the championship, albeit more than double the points behind Verstappen.

Perez has enjoyed a strong start to the 2024 season, achieving four podiums from the opening five races, including three second place finishes in Red Bull one-two’s.

Speaking in his column for Speedweek after the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull chief Marko praised the Mexican for his strong performances and revealed the reason for his struggles last year were because he ‘desperately’ tried to get ahead of Verstappen.

“What I'm also happy about is that Sergio Pérez is showing stronger performances in this first part of the season than he did a year ago,” he said.

“Checo’ no longer goes into the race with the claim that he absolutely wants to beat Max. By this I also mean that in 2023 he almost desperately went his own way when it came to voting if the speed wasn't right. So he tried to get closer to Max in a technical way with a different set-up. He gave that up.

“Pérez is now taking roughly the same route as Verstappen when it comes to voting. As a result, he loses less time and is significantly better, especially in the qualifying, than in 2023.”

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