Sergio Perez asserts that he doesn’t want to be handed an easy victory at his home grand prix in Mexico this weekend.
Formula 1 heads to Mexico City for the third-to-last race of the 2022 campaign, with Red Bull enjoying a dominant 2022 season to date.
Although most of the team’s success has come via Max Verstappen, Perez has taken two race wins at Monaco and Singapore.
The Guadalajara-born driver is a fan favourite at the event in Mexico, and has received tremendous support from the fans since the sport returned to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez in 2015.
Although a home race victory in F1 likely go down as his most memorable result, Perez asserts that he doesn’t want to be favoured at Red Bull for the weekend, as team-mate Max Verstappen has already clinched the Drivers’ Championship.
“I don’t need to be given anything, I have achieved everything without any gifts for so many years,” Perez told ESPN.
“In the end, I don’t think about it, I think about my job, about being perfect this weekend and looking for that victory.”
Some have suggested that Verstappen should repay Perez for holding up Lewis Hamilton at the dramatic season finale in Abu Dhabi last season.
However, Verstappen has said that he is not keen to sacrifice his race for the benefit of gifting his team-mate the race win.
“I think in the end it’s normal, we all want to win,” Perez said.
“I think that if it’s a situation, where it’s different, that it’s a different help, I have no doubt that he will do it as I have done with him in the past.”
Perez is still fighting to end the 2022 campaign second in the Drivers’ Championship and secure a 1-2 finish for Red Bull.
He currently sits third, two points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Only max is allowed gifts