Sergio Perez deletes tweet outlining his intentions to rival Max Verstappen to the F1 championship
Sergio Pérez DELETES tweet that insists on “I want to be a champion” while outlining his intentions to challenge Max Verstappen for the F1 world title this season, amid rising tension between teammates after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix .
Sergio Perez hastily deleted a tweet describing his intention to challenge Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen for the 2023 F1 title, amid growing tension between the two.
Perez was victorious in the second event on this year’s racing calendar in Saudi Arabia last week, with Verstappen in second, a setback to the season-opening result in Bahrain when the Dutchman won.
Verstappen is aiming to win his third straight title after winning last year by 146 points, while Perez finished third in the standings.
However, the Dutchman was clearly not happy with Perez’s victory on Sunday, as his father, Jos, did not recognize the Mexican after his win.
There was also an awkward moment when Perez discovered that Verstappen secured an extra point for posting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap, and the race winner then asked Red Bull to conduct an “information” review.
Sergio Perez (right) hastily deleted a tweet outlining his intention to challenge his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen (left) for the 2023 F1 title, amid rising tension between the two.
Perez tweeted that he wanted to ‘be a champion’ this season, before replacing him with a new version.
And after the race, Pérez took to Twitter to outline his intentions this season.
He said: ‘It was more difficult than I thought, but in the end I’m happy to get my fifth F1 victory.
‘Very happy with the result of the team. We will continue to push very hard. I want to be a champion.’
However, soon after, the tweet was deleted and Perez reposted something similar, but left out his ‘title ambitions’.
He tweeted: “It was harder than I thought but in the end I’m happy to get my fifth F1 win.” Very happy with the result of the team. We will continue to push very hard.’
What impact the deleted tweet has on their relationship remains to be seen, with Verstappen unafraid to vent his frustrations with his car after the race in Jeddah instead of praising Perez.
The 25-year-old had complained: ‘Now again, after three positive practice sessions, I have a problem in qualifying. Of course, I recovered to second, which is good.
“In general all the feeling in the team, everyone is happy, but personally I’m not happy because I’m not here to be second.”
The emotions of Verstappen (left) and Pérez (right) after the Saudi race were very different
It also comes after another controversial incident at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, the penultimate race on the 2022 calendar, when Verstappen defied team orders and refused to give up a spot to Perez.
This contributed to his eventually finishing in third place behind runner-up Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ standings.
At the time, Perez had expressed his anger on team radio as he said: “This shows who he (Verstappen) really is.”
F1 is enjoying a break this week, before returning for the Australian Grand Prix next weekend.