'I'm looking at Verstappen to match his level, and then I want to go past that'

Looking back at his first three races at Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez foresees a long road ahead before he achieves his goal of beating Max Verstappen. Until then, he can best use his time learning as much as he can from his teammate and, he says, mastering the Red Bull's unique handling.

Speaking to the Official website of Formula 1 Perez states that his arrival at Red Bull has more or less set the counter to zero, given everything he has learned in previous Formula One cars doesn't seem to be working in the RB16B. Perez: "What I used to do in the races just simply doesn’t work with this car, so it’s like resetting myself into the race, knowing how to approach it - how to take the maximum out of the tyres, how to take the maximum out of the car."

Clear roadmap

Perez has already mapped out his plan for growth at Red Bull. Step one is the reset he spoke about earlier: "I’m taking the approach of first I need to adapt to the car."

However, the Mexican knows that this is relatively difficult this season: "We have had such limited track time with these cars this year with the new rules of testing and also in practice that everything happens very quickly. So it’s very hard to do any work like we used to in practices when we had more time, now it’s really a couple of runs and the day is over."

The next step is to shift the focus towards Max Verstappen, in order to use the Dutchman as a reference point."At the same time, I have a very strong reference in Max, he’s obviously taking 110% out of the car from practice one all the way until Sunday, so I think first I need to get to that level and then move around.” Perez said.