The question now should be:
can Perez fight for the title against Max until the end of the season?
The question will not be whether Perez can fight for the title, but is Perez allowed to fight for the title at all from the team or does Verstappen at RedBull have too much influence in the meantime? Normally there has rarely been a team order at RedBull, but you never know.
In any case, it doesn't look like RedBull can really threaten the other teams in the long term
I think that he is capable to do it, but Red Bull simply won't allow him to fight.
That's the big question, i hope yes.
That also depends on the league points situation as well and how the race is going. When you have a dominant enough car that you are 1-2, then it doesn't matter who is the 1-2 in that situation and you will not be risked, you will be kept going as much as it can with the same 1-2 without caring about the leader.
However, Perez is used when they need him to do something to get a win, right now this season so far they didn't need something like that, they didn't need a situation where Perez needed to do something extra to get them the win, they have done well enough that Max and Perez ended up great so far. This means that we need to see the team do well, and they won't meddle with the positions, but if other cars get better, they will start to ask Perez to defend.