Sergio Perez says he fully believes he can be Formula 1 world champion

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has said that he fully believes he can be Formula 1 World Champion before he bows out of the sport.

The Mexican spent 2021 with the Red Bull team - his first season with the Milton Keynes-based outfit - and did a pretty solid job with him finishing fourth in the Drivers' standings and helping Max Verstappen win the title over the course of the season.

Indeed, he'll be relatively happy with how it went, with him showing particularly good race pace on a Sunday, but he'll know he needs to raise things further in 2022 if he is to challenge for the championship with Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton a cut above the rest last year.

Even so, with a year now under his belt inside the Red Bull garage and with the 2022 regulations set to offer drivers an effective clean slate in terms of where they might be able to challenge, Perez now feels he has a shot at the grandest prize of all in motorsport: the Formula 1 World Championship.

Speaking to Tag Heuer's podcast named, 'The Edge,' Perez said:

“I really enjoy working with the team, to be honest, with a group of people, with engineers, with Red Bull.

“I really feel great to be part of it, working great with Max with the race engineers, with all the team in general.

“To me at this stage in my career the most important is I enjoy it, the time I don’t enjoy it will be the time I have to go home because I don’t need any more to be here.

“I am here because I fully believe I can be a World Champion.”

Of course, with his teammate's achievements in mind, he will be all too aware that this is perhaps his best chance of winning a world title, given the team available, and he'll naturally want to try and make the very most of it.

Red Bull have to get their 2022 car