Sergio Perez deletes his tweet after announcing his intentions to challenge Max Verstappen for the 2023 Formula One championship
Sergio Perez has declared his intentions to challenge Max Verstappen for the 2023 Formula One championship, at least shortly.
The Mexican won the race in Saudi Arabia on Sunday after the Dutchman had won the season-opening race in Bahrain. This was the Mexican’s fifth Grand Prix triumph.
The defending world champion started from position 15 on the grid due to engine problems, and although moving up to second and winning the fastest lap prize, he was unable to pass Perez.
But as soon as the two got back to the Red Bull garage, tensions started to rise.
Sergio Perez deletes tweet talking about challenging Max Verstappen for the F1 2023 title on Twitter
Jos Verstappen was caught up in the commotion as Perez was being beaten up by engineers and team members, and he was open about how angry he was about it.
Red Bull is currently moving at such a rapid clip that it is almost impossible for anyone to genuinely challenge Max Verstappen for the championship but Perez.
And as was to be expected, the 33-year-old tweeted that he will be trying to win his first championship.
As per dailystar.co.uk, he Tweeted:
It was tougher than I thought, but in the end I’m happy to get my fifth victory in F1,” he wrote. “Very happy with the result of the team. We are going to keep pushing very hard. I want to be champion.”
The stern words didn’t, however, remain in his account for very long. After the first post was taken down, a nearly identical statement was posted again, but this time the line “I want to be champion” was notably missing.
Verstappen chose to complain about his car problems rather than expressing happiness for his partner after the race in Jeddah.
The 25-year-old won by a comfortable margin of 146 points in 2022, but his campaign’s conclusion was marred by a fight with Perez.
When he disregarded team orders and refused to give up a position to Perez at the penultimate race of the season in Brazil, he hindered his chances of finishing ahead of eventual runner-up Charles Leclerc in the Championship.