“Doesn’t Change Anything”: Undeterred by Daniel Ricciardo’s Challenge, Sergio Perez Sends a Firm Message to Half of the Grid

A Red Bull seat comes with its own set of pressures. Yes, it’s one of the best seats to be in as a Formula 1 driver at the moment, but because it’s so in demand, it’s always under scrutiny. One slip-up or one run of bad form and there are 20 replacements waiting in line. That’s been the story of Sergio Perez’s life for a significant part of this season. Driving alongside Max Verstappen and keeping up with him is a tough ask. While Perez seemed to be doing that for the first few races, he hasn’t had the best time in the second seat for the past two months. And now, he’s 99 points behind Verstappen. And even though he’s contracted to be at Red Bull till 2024, speculations of his replacement have been making the rounds, and Daniel Ricciardo is leading the list of probables.

Just over a week ago, AlphaTauri (Red Bull’s sister team) announced that Daniel Ricciardo would replace Nyck De Vries from the Hungarian GP. But before he got the seat, he was Red Bull’s reserve driver this season. And since he got that role, he’s expressed how badly he wants to return to the seat alongside Verstappen. With Perez’s bad performances lately, he was already under pressure. And the fact that he’s in a Red Bull and not maximizing the RB19’s potential—when his teammate is doing just that—didn’t help either. And now, there’s the added challenge of Ricciardo (among other drivers) gunning for his seat.

Perez took it in stride, though. In an interview on Thursday before the Hungarian GP, the Mexican discussed Ricciardo’s return. He said, as quoted by ESPN.in, “I’m happy for Daniel, he’s very motivated to be back, so well done to him. It’s a great opportunity for him.” Although he’s aware of the Aussie’s threat, he remains undeterred by it, revealing he knows what to do. He explained, “From my side it doesn’t change anything because I drive for Red Bull, there’s not just Daniel out there. It’s Yuki [Tsunoda], it’s more than half of the grid would like to drive for Red Bull. So it doesn’t change anything.”

Read More: Sergio Perez Dubbed to Put Red Bull’s Invaluable Tradition to Shame by Driving Alongside Max Verstappen

All he can do is prove he deserves to stay in that seat until the end of his contract. And he knows it’s all up to him. “That’s why I’m focused.” Even though he expressed that Ricciardo or the rest of the field gunning for his seat hasn’t deterred him, could Verstappen’s comments on Thursday have affected him?

Max Verstappen subtly undermined Sergio Perez

At the drivers’ press conference on Thursday in Budapest, Verstappen and Ricciardo—who are really good friends and, at one point, were fierce competitors, too—were in the same slot. One of the interviewers asked Max if he would be open to having Daniel as a teammate again. He replied, “Yeah. I mean, I never actually wanted him to leave!” It’s a known fact that after Ricciardo left, none of Verstappen’s teammates challenged him. Not even Checo. And Max subtly pointed it out.

But Checo knows Max is his biggest competitor, and getting affected by what he said would only reflect poorly on him. But as far as the Ricciardo threat is concerned, he has it handled. And he proved just how much he wants to prolong his time in F1 as much as possible when he said, “I’m a winner, I don’t like having bad weekends, it’s not what I’m here for. I’m here because I know that I can do it, and I’ve done it before.”

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Can Sergio Perez return to his consistent front-of-the-field self at the Hungarian GP?