TV presenter Karun Chandhok revealed his conversation with Max Verstappen's dad after the Qatar Grand Prix, who shared his son's promise not to be beaten by Sergio Perez again.
The 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was Sergio Perez's second and last victory of the 2023 season. It was only the fourth weekend, but he could not match Max Verstappen for the remaining 18.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was painful for the Dutchman because he already lost the Sprint race to his teammate but had a chance to get him back during the Sunday race, where he started ahead of the Mexican.
The triple World Champion started from the front row alongside Charles Leclerc and overtook him soon after the race started. He was leading a race, but his team made a wrong strategy call ahead of the safety car.
That placed Verstappen behind Perez, and he was not able to overtake the 33-year-old for the rest of the race. Karun Chandhok revealed his conversation with Verstappen's dad for the Sky Sports F1 podcast:
"I saw Max’s Dad, Jos Verstappen, in Qatar the evening after Max had won the championship, and we were chatting about the season, and he said to me, ‘Max was furious after Baku’, and when he came home, he said to his Dad ‘I’m not going to get beaten by him ever again this season.'"
Ever since the race in Baku, Verstappen won every single race besides the Singapore Grand Prix, where he still beat his teammate. Chandhok added:
"He was absolutely livid and he said ‘he will not beat me again’. And low and behold he was right! It was pretty devastating."
The 26-year-old beat his teammate by 290 points at the end of the season and broke the record for the biggest gap to the second driver in the Championship.
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