Fans reacted as Sergio Perez's father, Antonio Perez, called Lewis Hamilton an eight-time F1 World Champion during an interview. He mentioned that his son, Checo, had helped Max Verstappen win his maiden championship in 2021.
Perez drove for Red Bull Racing between 2021 and 2024. He remained quite a competitive driver throughout his stint with the team; however, his performance had a massive decline during the final races of the 2024 season, and he split ways with the team.
It was quite popularly known that Perez had a major contribution in assisting Verstappen win his first title, considering that he defended against Lewis Hamilton in various races. The latter was set to win his record-shattering eighth title that season; however, it was Verstappen who won his first.
However, while discussing this incident with the media, Sergio Perez's father, Antonio Perez, accidentally mentioned Hamilton as an eight-time World Champion.
"Checo drove for Red Bull for four years. How many years did Red Bull become champions? Four years. Checo Pérez has made Verstappen champion. If Checo had had the same car, he would now be the world champion."
"Red Bull needed him (Pérez). He kept eight-time world champion Lewis Hamilton behind him, the time he got a good car," Antonio Perez said.
Fans found the mistake from Antonio Perez quite hilarious as they commented on the situation, with many claiming that some people still cannot get over the 2021 championship showdown.
Some users also claimed that Antonio Perez's comments were actually hurting Sergio Perez more, since they seemingly reflect him more as a second driver.
Lewis Hamilton assesses Ferrari performance at Monza after disappointing Dutch GP
The 2025 Dutch GP was a major disappointment for Ferrari as both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc DNFed. The team gained no points, and it hurt their position in the Championship, as they were battling with Mercedes to clinch second place.
Heading into Ferrari's home track next, Hamilton has strong beliefs that the team will perform better. He mentioned that the team has historically performed good on the track, and they had many positives to extract from Zandvoort last week.
"I think Ferrari have generally gone pretty well [here] in the past years," he said (via F1). "Obviously they won here last year, with a great strategy and great drive from Charles."
"I’m just really keen to see how the car works here. We’re definitely learning from weekend to weekend, [with] loads of positives to take from the last, so we just have to keep building on that."
Lewis Hamilton has had a difficult season so far. The car hasn't been competitive this season; moreover, he has faced adaptability issues moving to the new team. While no major upgrades are expected later in the season from Ferrari, the car has been performing more consistently in recent races.