Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has said that he feels as though he 'regressed' throughout the course of 2023, as the Mexican attempts to tie down a new contract with the world champions.
Perez was only able to claim two race victories last season in what has been described by team principal Christian Horner as being the 'most successful car in F1 history'.
His supreme team-mate Max Verstappen, on the other hand, took 19 wins throughout the season on his way to a third consecutive drivers' world championship title.
Now 33 years old, Perez's contract with Red Bull runs out at the end of 2024, and the Mexican will need to prove that he can get closer to the performance of Verstappen, or risk being cast aside.
Sergio Perez managed to beat his team-mate to two of the first four race victories in 2023Max Verstappen claimed 19 race wins in 2023, including 10 in a rowMax Verstappen has now won three world championships, with all of them coming with Sergio Perez as his team-mate
Perez's contract situation
Perez has now admitted that he needs to consistently perform at the highest level, if he is to get anywhere close to Verstappen's dominant levels from 2023.
The Mexican did manage to challenge Verstappen in the early part of 2023, claiming two of the first four race wins of the season, but that challenge soon fell away after Verstappen revealed he'd had enough of being beaten by his team-mate.
“I want to be able to achieve regularity, to build momentum," Perez said in quotes reported by AutoHebdo.
"I think what we missed this year is progression. We started the year very high, tied with Max, but we were not able to progress throughout the season. We have sometimes even regressed.
"So I think that will be my main priority: to be able to progress throughout the season, whatever my starting point. It is important that, weekend after weekend, we continue to evolve and improve.
“I had a few bad weekends," he continued.
"We started the year very strong in the first five or six races, but then we couldn't progress with the car. This is something I missed this year and want to massively improve next year.
"The problems we had this year gave me a better understanding of what I was doing with the settings, how I was setting the car up, what direction I should go when I had problems. So this is something that will definitely make us stronger next year."
GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
GP JAPAN
5 - 7 Apr
GP CHINA
19 - 21 Apr
GP USA
3 - 5 May
GP ITALY
17 - 19 May
GP MONACO
24 - 26 May
GP CANADA
7 - 9 Jun
GP SPAIN
21 - 23 Jun
GP AUSTRIA
28 - 30 Jun
GP GREAT BRITAIN
5 - 7 Jul
GP HUNGARY
19 - 21 Jul
GP BELGIUM
26 - 28 Jul
GP NETHERLANDS
23 - 25 Aug
Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024 
Grand Prix of Singapore 2024 
Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024 
Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024 
Qatar Grand Prix 2024 
Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024 
Innovatieweg 20C