Sergio Perez may have achieved his career’s best finish in terms of points and position in the table in 2022, but his form took a gradual slump. The Mexican driver started off the season well, scoring more points than his teammate Max Verstappen at one point. That was when the car was suffering from the issue of being overweight. However, once the issues were resolved, the car turned out to be more to the liking of Max with a bit of oversteer. Since then, Checo’s form saw a downward trend. He eventually finished 3rd, behind Charles Leclerc. To make sure that does not happen in 2023, he has taken some necessary measures.

Going by the way Red Bull and Max won their respective championships, it does not look like they ever hit a roadblock ever during the season. Reality is far from it, though. Right from the start of the season, the car had some reliability issues which ended up in multiple DNFs in the first three races. That car, for some reason, favored Perez’s driving style, and he was able to extract better results. Later, Max’s father Jos Verstappen hinted that Red Bull favored Sergio in the Monaco GP as well, a race he won.

Speaking about the 2023 car’s development during the livery launch event, as quoted by Motorsport, Checo said, “There are things that we are going to work on.”

“We believe that the car is already going to be better. I’ve been pushing the team in a certain direction, and we believe we’re heading in that direction,” he added. “But we’ll see. Once we get the car, it’s all about adapting ourselves to the car and try to maximize it.”

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As Daniel Ricciardo made his way into the team as a third driver, the move was seen as a threat to Sergio’s place. Helmut Marko issued a clarification to assure Checo of his place on the team.

Sergio Perez plays down the threat from Daniel Ricciardo

Perez may have only finished 3rd in the championship despite the dominant run by his teammate, but his contribution to the team’s success was significant. That being said, he is under pressure to match Verstappen’s form and Ricciardo’s presence could be a subtle hint from the team. Checo is not too bothered, though.

Speaking after the 2023 livery launch, Perez was quoted by Crash.net as saying, “When you are at Red Bull Racing you have to perform at your best, it doesn’t matter if Daniel is here or not because Red Bull can pick pretty much any driver from the grid.”

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Whether Checo is under any kind of pressure, he will surely look to prove his critics wrong. While beating Max will be a big achievement, it is not something he will rule out.