After winning the 2022 Monaco GP, Sergio Perez jokingly said to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, "I signed too soon". This comment was caught on camera and aired on live TV, which instantly spread the speculated news that Sergio Perez had signed a contract extension with Red Bull, and the team wasted no time in making the announcement. While his Monaco GP win would've helped in negotiating a better contract with the team, Sergio Perez has shown steady improvement over the course of the last year and a half, and even answered criticism of being a poor qualifier by claiming his maiden pole position at Saudi Arabian GP earlier this season.
Also Read: F1: Perez Grabs Maiden Monaco GP Win In A Tyre Management Masterclass
Sergio Perez won his maiden Monaco GP last weekend starting from 3rd on the grid.
"For me, this has been an incredible week, winning the Monaco Grand Prix is a dream for any driver and then to follow that with announcing I will continue with the team until 2024 just makes me extremely happy," Perez said upon announcing his contract extension.
"This year he has taken another step and the gap to world champion Max has closed significantly, evidenced by his superb pole position in Jeddah earlier this year and by his wonderful win in Monaco just last weekend. For us, holding onto his pace, race craft and experience was a no-brainer", explained Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull racing F1 team.
Routinely applauded for his supreme tyre management skills, Sergio Perez demonstrated extraordinary defending skills in last years F1 campaign too. One of the most prominent displays of this was in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, where Checo held off 7-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton in a bid for Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen to catch up with the Mercedes. Verstappen went on to win that controversial race, and the World Championship with it, and Perez played an important part in his entire 2021 campaign.
Sergio Perez's maiden pole was also the first pole position by a Mexican driver
This year however, Perez has stepped up his game on all fronts. Not only getting better at qualifying, Perez has finished in the top 4 in every race, except for the season opener in Bahrain where he had a mechanical failure forcing him to retire with a handful of laps to go. He has scored 110 points this season already in just 7 rounds - more than half of what he scored in 2021 - and sits 3rd in the 2022 championship, just 6 points behind title challenger Charles Leclerc and 15 points behind reigning world champion and teammate Max Verstappen. His contribution has also helped Red Bull climb into the lead of the Constructor's championship, as the Milton-Keynes based outfit aims to win its first constructors title since 2013.
