Racing Against the Infamous “Mad Max”, Sergio Perez Threatens Verstappen’s Persona With Latest Claim

Ever since his arrival at Red Bull, Sergio Perez has gained quite a reputation. Often having to display his defensive capabilities, the Mexican driver has excelled more times than not. He put the best of display in Abu Dhabi against Lewis Hamilton in 2021, which helped Max Verstappen win his maiden championship. He, however, feels he’d rather have the reputation of an aggressive racer.

The 2021 drivers’ championship run went right down to the wire. A win in the season finale would have ensured a title for Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. As Verstappen lagged behind, Perez stayed ahead of Hamilton and kept backing him up. As Verstappen arrived to fight his own battle, Checo let Max pass.

Sergio Perez wants people to call him by a new name!

The feat in Abu Dhabi and several performances after that earned Sergio Perez a cool nickname: The Mexican Minister of Defense. He recently reacted to the reputation in an interview with Red Bull’s German branch.

“I’d rather be the Minister of Attack,” Perez said as he laughed. “I really think I drive fair. Of course I’m aggressive in the race, but I never close the door. I think you can definitely ride bike to bike with me, and that’s pretty comfortable. Pilots like that don’t come around very often.” [Translated using Google]

After reading these comments, it sure feels like Sergio is trying to steal Verstappen’s ‘Mad Max’ persona.

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Red Bull had a dream season in 2022 as they broke records left, right, and center. The team as a whole won 17 races from the 22 fixtures of the year. While Perez contributed to only 2 of those race wins, the Dutchman’s contribution was massive. In a total of Red Bull’s 759 championship-winning points, Checo contributed 305 points.

Checo Perez is wary of the Aston Martin threat in 2023

After Sebastian Vettel’s retirement, Aston Martin brought in Fernando Alonso. While the Silverstone-based team still remains in the development stages, a driver of Alonso’s experience is exactly what they need. Moreover, Lance Stroll could benefit from his presence as well.

Talking with Nextgen-Auto, Perez said, “I think Fernando will help the team a lot.” [Translated using Google]

“All I hear is that it’s going to be a very competitive year for Aston Martin. So it would be great for the sport and for everyone to have Fernando fighting up front, fighting with Carlos [Sainz], with us.”

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Aston Martin currently has a state-of-the-art factory in the making in Silverstone. The facility will have an in-house wind tunnel as well. To drive the team forward, they even brought Red Bull’s former head of aerodynamics, Dan Fallows, as their technical director.