Source -
Tyres NorthamptonThere's no doubt about it; we're only two races down in 2023, and it will be a one-horse race for this year's World Constructors' Championship. Red Bull's RB19 might be one of the sport's most successful entries, should the opening two Middle Eastern rounds be anything to go by.
The ease with which Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez strode to victory in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, respectively, echoes the gap Mercedes enjoyed in the early turbo-hybrid years when the Silver Arrows nailed the regulation change. In the 2014, 2015, and 2016 championships, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg thankfully kept things somewhat entertaining at the front with tense title fights that cost the pair their friendship.
Therefore, it shouldn't be a shock that most hope for an entertaining 2023 season rests on a Wold Drivers' Championship duel that echoes those seasons. The problem is that Perez, so far, rarely has an answer for the incredible pace of his Dutch teammate Verstappen. However, it took three years of Merc domination for Rosberg to best Hamilton, so could history repeat in 2023?
Looking back through Perez's triumphs when reading Red Bull overalls, the wins have become more frequent. In his first year at the Milton Keynes-based squad, Perez took just one top-step visit. That increased to two last year, and it's only two races into 2023, and the Mexican has already added another victory to his tally.
Not only that, but his podium trips have become far more frequent the longer he has spent at Red Bull. 2021 saw just four other top-three finishes, while that more than doubled to nine in 2022 across the same 23-race championship length. They're some consistent steps that offer a glimmer of hope when thinking of the 2023 championship.
On the other hand, 2021 was a season where the podium almost-always featured the seemingly inescapable Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas trio. Perez finished a distant P4 in the championship, with fewer than half the points of Verstappen in equal machinery. Red Bull had a championship-winning car in 2022, though not to the same level as this season, yet Perez failed to beat Ferrari's Charles Leclerc over the year, finishing P3.
Unfortunately, for those looking at Red Bull for any 2023 entertainment, drilling down further doesn't help Perez's cause. That sole 2021 victory came in Baku at a race where Max Verstappen's tyre dramatically exploded down the main straight with just five laps remaining. Perez inherited the lead at the restart, but that race undoubtedly was a Verstappen loss rather than a Perez win.
One year later, Perez again benefited from another's misfortune, this time in Monaco. The Mexican had out-qualified his teammate on the circuit where a high qualification place is most crucial, albeit with a cloud of mystery hanging over his Saturday spin that denied Verstappen any chance of pole position. However, Ferrari's shockingly bad pit stop calls let Red Bull seize the initiative to advance Perez from his P3 start to win a race that Leclerc shouldn't have lost.
To find out more about our comprehensive range of services, or to book your vehicle in, contact our friendly team of experts today.
Singapore 2022 saw Verstappen again suffer in qualifying at a track where the starting position is crucial, this time thanks to fuel sample concerns after abandoning a P1-worthy lap. Perez took advantage by taking the lead from Leclerc at the race start while Verstappen's five-race winning streak ended.
A similar low-qualifying Verstappen situation last week in Saudi Arabia again handed Perez the win. Yet despite 14 positions being the gap at the race start, only five seconds separated the pair over the line, admittedly with a safety car slightly helping Verstappen's cause. Had the two started on the front row, as you may expect from the pace of this year's Red Bull, you'd have to think Verstappen would've been the leader of the team's 1-2 finish, not the other way around.
While the three years of Hamilton vs Rosberg saw the only two drivers capable of taking the crown trading blows until the slight underdog of Rosberg won out in 2016, by comparison, Perez has only picked up the scraps dropped by Verstappen over the last two seasons. Should he want to contest the 2023 championship, the Mexican must dig far dig deeper than ever, or sabotage the other car in the garage. If you're hoping for a repeat of 2016, I'm afraid the results simply are not on Perez's side.