Sergio Perez explains the reason behind his huge deficit to Max Verstappen in Belgium

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez recently cited his aggressive car setup as the main reason behind the huge deficit to teammate and world champion Max Verstappen at the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix main race.

Despite finishing a very comfortable P2 in the main race, the Mexican driver finished more than 22 seconds behind his Dutch teammate. He was no match for his two-time world-champion teammate on Sunday despite starting four places above him at the start.

Perez could not do anything as Max Verstappen breezed passed him after the first round of pitstops to take the lead. Speaking to Sky Sports, Sergio Perez said:

"We were too aggressive with the car setup, not having any practice. So it was important just to make sure we brought the car home. Especially on that second stint, he pulled a massive gap and then I went off into Turn 11, and then the gap got bigger."

"Two podiums in a row now and our main objective is to continue to stay on the podium," he added. "We have the summer break to make sure we stay on top of things and have some time to reset. Max did a tremendous job and it overall was a great team result. I am looking forward to the summer break and going into the second half of the season to come back even stronger."

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Sergio Perez on the importance of getting past Charles Leclerc at the start

The Mexican driver further stated that It was crucial for him to pass the Ferrari driver on lap one as it allowed him to get on with his race and manage the first stint really well.

In his post-race press conference, Sergio Perez said:

"Yeah, I knew that it was quite crucial for my race to get Charles on lap one. We had a good launch but he also had a good start so it was just about making sure we got him into Turn Five. It worked well and we were able to do, basically, our own race from that point on. I think we managed to do a good first stint."

"I think, having these sort of races in clean air, is where you learn a lot and you make those steps in the coming races, because my last few races have been a bit of… yeah, very hard to get a proper read on them, because the way you have to race with dirty air, and so on, so that to me I think is where we’re going to be learning the most on that stint on free air and the second stint as well," Perez added.

It will be interesting to see if Sergio Perez gets a bit more consistent in the second part of the season after the summer break.