“Physically I’ve been very weak” - Sergio Perez secures fantastic P3 finish in the Austrian F1 GP despite recent bout with sickness

Sergio Perez made an impressive recovery to take a podium finish at the 2023 F1 Austrian Grand Prix this weekend after starting from 15th. The Mexican driver missed media day on Thursday due to an illness. In a post-race media interaction, he admitted that the illness caused severe physical weakness, making the weekend particularly challenging.

Praising Red Bull for their strategy and overall pace, Sergio Perez said:

"I'm really happy. It's been a very difficult weekend for me, personally, physically, I've been really weak. I was sick on Thursday and it hasn't been an easy weekend with high fever and little sleep. Great recovery from the team, fantastic strategy and we had great pace."

Describing his thrilling race against the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, the Red Bull driver reflected on the session, hoping for an upward trend in the upcoming races.

"It was very hard but fair (with Carlos). Always a pleasure to race them. It's been a bit of a rough patch for me, but hopefully, now we are back and can keep that consistency."

With Max Verstappen taking yet another win this weekend, Red Bull secured a double podium finish at their home race.

Red Bull boss "frustrated" by disappointing qualifying for Sergio Perez at the Austrian GP

For a fourth consecutive weekend, Sergio Perez missed out on Q3 in qualifying at the 2023 F1 Austrian GP, leaving the team quite frustrated, to say the least. A whopping three lap times were deleted after the 33-year-old proceeded to exceed track limits, leaving him in P15 for the race start.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Horner reflected on Sergio Perez's qualifying session on Friday:

"Just hugely frustrating because he could have been there, he could have done it. That's the frustration. It's fantastic that we got the pole, but it feels not complete. It was crystal clear [that it was his last opportunity]. It's hugely frustrating. The frustrating thing is we know he can do it. He did a 4.9 on that lap, and he was three hundredths off Max. He could have been four-tenths slower and still been in.

While Sergio Perez certainly made a good recovery to P3, it could have arguably been a comfortable 1-2 finish for Red Bull had he started the race from the front of the grid.