Sergio Perez "The F1 team that sticks to the budget limit violation is a bad loser"[F1-Gate.com]

Sergio Perez believes Red Bull Racing exceeded the budget cap for 2021 but didn’t gain a ‘performance advantage’, seeking to ‘damage reputation’ to his team in the aftermath of the controversy. He called the sticky rival F1 teams ‘bad losers’.

F1’s first season to adhere to budget caps has sparked major controversy when it was revealed that Red Bull Racing had exceeded the 2021 budget cap by $2.2 million.

However, it is unclear what level of penalty Red Bull Racing will face for violating the budget cap, as it was also the first violation, with Max Verstappen overtaking Lewis Hamilton on the final lap for his first. The story was sometimes rewound to the Abu Dhabi GP, which won the F1 World Champion.

Ultimately, Red Bull Racing was fined $7 million and a further 10% reduction in wind tunnel and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) development time that would prevent it from upgrading its 2023 car.

As for the impact of Red Bull Racing’s budget overrun on Max Verstappen’s F1 title qualification for 2021, Sergio Perez has denied it had a material impact on the result.

“If you look at the facts, Max didn’t win the championship because of it. There was no performance advantage from it,” said Perez.

“It is unfair for any team to use this to try to bring down Red Bull’s reputation. It shows they are bad losers.”

After falling behind Charles Leclerc in the finale of the season in Abu Dhabi, Sergio Perez missed out on second place in the drivers’ championship this season by just three points, and eventually Max Verstappen. He won the title by a large margin of 146 points from the Ferrari driver.

However, Sergio Perez maintains his belief that he can challenge for the F1 title in the 2023 season.

“I definitely believe that, if you look at the beginning of the season, I was on par with Max,” explained Sergio Perez.

“It’s important to be more consistent. But I’m still learning. It’s my second year on the team. I believe I’m going to get stronger.”

“Obviously Max has been at a very high level this season. He’s improved from last season and obviously did a great job. I don’t have a problem with that.”

“I need to work hard, work more closely with the team and beat him next year. If I didn’t believe I could do it, I wouldn’t have been in F1.”