Perez is making plans to be at the sharp end in 2023

Sergio Perez is eyeing a title-winning 2023 with Red Bull. Fresh from the most productive season of his lengthy Formula 1 career, Sergio Perez believes he is at the peak of his powers and is determined to chase a championship in 2023.

In his third season racing for Red Bull, Perez did better than ever and scored multiple wins within the same season for the first time after taking the chequered flag first at Monaco and Singapore.

Despite recording a maiden top three finish in the drivers championship and scoring 115 points than his next best season, Perez still did not finish the year favourably when stacked against his teammate Max Verstappen.

Verstappen crushed all comers on his way to back-to-back world titles, winning 13 more races than his Mexican teammate, who was almost 150 points adrift.

Perez admitted he struggled to find the same consistency of Verstappen in the RB18 as the year rolled on, but said he still felt it was his most pleasing season from a personal point of view.

“I think as Formula 1 drivers, we are constantly working for new challenges all the time. But I do feel, at this time, I’m pretty much at my best,” Perez told F1.Com.

“I really want to carry it on and start next year on a very high level.”

Perez’s arrival at Red Bull was the realisation of the best part of a decade toiling away at the pinnacle of the sport.

“Checo” first appeared on the F1 grid in 2011 for Sauber and shot to stardom a year later at Malaysia, where he pushed Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso all the way to fall just two seconds short of a miraculous win as he showed off his tyre management skills for the first time.

It was the first of three podiums that year, which helped Perez land a seat at McLaren after the high-profile departure of Lewis Hamilton.

But the dream drive only lasted a single season as both team and driver dropped form, which forced the Mexican to find a new home at Force India, where he stayed until 2020 when he was squeezed out of the newly named Racing Point by Lance Stroll.

Despite scoring his first ever win at the Sakhir Grand Prix, Perez did not have a drive locked in for the following year until striking a deal to replace Alex Albon at Red Bull at the last minute.

It was the opportunity “Checo” was waiting for and he used it to good advantage, winning a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix and fending off Hamilton in a key battle at Abu Dhabi to help Verstappen secure his maiden world championship.

Perez continued his momentum with a strong start in 2022, which culminated with a memorable win on the streets of Monte Carlo.

With the Mexican even then being a dark horse in the championship race, his contract was swiftly extended by Red Bull.

But soon mechanical issues increased and the qualifying pace dropped off as Perez suffered a mid-season slump.

Fortunes turned around for the better in Singapore, where Perez saved one of his finest drives to control a wet-dry Marina Bay race.

The win sparked a late-season resurgence as “Checo” returned to the podium in Japan, Mexico and Abu Dhabi to complete the up-and-down year in third, three points short of runner-up Charles Leclerc.

Perez admitted he had a topsy-turvy relationship with the RB18 throughout the year and said consistency will be the key ingredient to a more cohesive effort in 2023 where he hopes to fight at the front.

“I’m constantly working on it. I think it really depends on how comfortable I am at the start of the season with the car, as I was in the beginning of the season,” he said.

“2022 started really well. We had some reliability issues in the beginning, but things were looking on track. We were in the mix for the championship early on, then it slipped away.

“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 and fight for the title, if we were to have a similar level of car for next year.”

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Perez is making plans to be at the sharp end in 2023 Perez is making plans to be at the sharp end in 2023 Perez is making plans to be at the sharp end in 2023