As a Formula 1 driver, you never want to accept that you’re not the fastest guy around. You’ve trained and slogged your entire life to get to the pinnacle of racing, and you’re here to win, not just partake. That being said, it’s often wise to be aware of your limitations. Truth be told, on a given day, you may be the fastest or at least up there, however, those sparks of brilliance are all that they are. At the dawn of the 2023 F1 season, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez has been bluntly asked to follow this exact advice. And it comes from the Dutch camp.

There’s no doubt that Sergio Perez is a world-class driver. But so was Valtteri Bottas. This forms the crux of the Dutch commentator Olav Mol’s argument. On his day, Bottas was right up there with Lewis Hamilton. But as long as Hamilton existed, Bottas was always the number 2.

While speaking to the Dutch variant of Motorsport.com, Mol expanded on this hypothesis. He said, “To the outside world, Perez is someone who says he is not suitable as a second driver. But in private Perez knows exactly that he is what he is. But he has to become Bottas 4.0. Bottas was the perfect second driver, always right behind.”

“Bottas won Constructors’ titles, you could say that Red Bull also achieved it thanks to Perez. Not just because of Max’s points. That’s the biggest part. But Red Bull has Max for the Drivers’ title and Perez for the Constructors’ title, that’s the situation.”

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This isn’t the first time that they have asked Checo to look at the Finn as an example. But the Mexican Minister of Defense would like nothing better than to shut out all the noise and focus on his 2023 championship bid.

Looking back on 2022, Sergio Perez delivers his 2023 title verdict

Very early on in the 2022 F1 season, it did actually look like a three-way battle between Perez, Verstappen and Charles Leclerc would emerge for the title. But as the season progressed, Perez’s title challenge went pale. However, in hindsight, he realizes exactly what he needs to do to win that elusive maiden title.

Givemesport.com quoted him as saying, “I had a couple of bad races that really put me out of contention for the championship, so there is some work to do in that regard, together with the team. [We need to] make sure that we can keep that consistency throughout and that we can come back next year and fight for the title if we were to have a similar level of car for next year.”

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Can Sergio Perez do the unthinkable and dethrone Max Verstappen in 2023?