Perez: Relationship with Verstappen has improved this year

Sergio Pérez believes his relationship with Max Verstappen has improved compared to previous years, which has helped Red Bull develop their dominant Formula 1 car.

The Mexican managed to seal second in the Drivers' Championship, which enabled Red Bull to achieve their first one-two.

Last year the pair suffered a rift at the end of the season, when Verstappen appeared to disobey team orders which would have helped them achieve a second in the championship with Perez.

For his part, the Mexican was quick to point out how their relationship has developed since he first joined the team in 2021.

"Our relationship is really good. The whole engineering, when we are in all those briefings through so many races, I think it's been good," Perez told media, including RacingNews365.

"We've been pushing at times in different directions, but at the same time we've been strongly asking for the same stuff.

"So that also has been positive for the team. This is our third season together, so it's been a good one."

Perez names biggest progress

When asked about one of the areas that he feels has improved throughout 2023, Perez responded: "It's about the car, how I was making use of it and how I can make better use of it through the weekend at different circuits.

"Through all of that I made a lot of progress, together with my engineering, in understanding how to maximise the performance on the car."

Verstappen scored twice the amount of points of Perez over the course of the season, owing to his consistency having taken 19 wins out of 22 races.

Perez feels he has been on "another level" compared to previous years, which has enabled Verstappen to exploit the most out of the dominant RB19.

"It's how he has been dealing with it has been really impressive, he has done a tremendous job, and he has been really on another level," said Perez.

"It's great to see, obviously we'd all like to be on his position, but there's only one champion."