Perez makes title statement
SERGIO Perez’s controlled win over teammate Max Verstappen in Baku the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the weekend was good news for Formula One fans.
Red Bull nailed the downforce changes last year, ironically introduced to generate closer racing, but the outcome was in many ways the opposite with Verstappen sweeping to his second world championship.
While the Austrian team are still streets ahead of their grid rivals, at last now there seems to be the prospect of a proper intra-team battle for the 2023 title.
Perez followed up Saturday’s sprint win with what some consider the best of his six career successes.
It pushed him to within six points of his teammate heading to Florida for next weekend’s race in Miami.
As the Mexican left Baku he only had one thought on his mind – the world title.
“Yes, I am in the championship fight, I really believe that, but as I’ve found the best way to speak is on track,” said the driver who went 190 races before his first win in Bahrain in 2020.
Perez believes that without the issues on his side of the Red Bull garage during a disastrous qualifying in Melbourne, it could be him and not Verstappen heading to Florida at the top of the drivers standings.
But his thoughts are on the future. “Baku was an excellent result for the championship and for now I'm only thinking forward, about Miami.”
The man whose delicate job it is to oversee the two title combatants is Red Bull boss Christian Horner.
“Checo (Perez) has been incredible all weekend. They were pushing each other incredibly hard. We allowed them to race, as long as they keep it clean they can race,” said Horner, meaning the gloves are off, evoking memories of Nico Rosberg’s gripping battle with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to claim the 2016 world title by five points in the final race of the season.
Double world champion Max Verstappen didn’t sit on the fence when quizzed on the new sprint format – “just scrap the whole thing!” he suggested.
Baku staged the first of the six 100km dashes this season which for the first time have their own “sprint shoot-out” qualifying.
The general feeling in the paddock was that the change, only approved by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, last Tuesday, was positive, giving an added layer of excitement to fans.
But Verstappen derided the sprint shoot-out as “artificial excitement”.
“I got bored through (the sprint) qualifying, to be honest.
“I like to have one particular qualifying, where you just put everything in it, and that was Friday, which I of course enjoy, and then they have to do it again, I’m like, ‘my God, another qualifying?’ I just don’t really enjoy that.”
While there may well be a few tweaks in the pipeline, Charles Leclerc backed the change with the caveat that sprints don’t start popping up at more weekends – MotoGP, for instance, have introduced them as a fixture at every race.
Alarm bells sounded during the sprint when pole-sitting Leclerc reported on the team radio that “there was a cut” – suggesting a serious issue on his Ferrari – the last thing the team needed after their painful showing in the first three races. But Leclerc was happy to reassure Scuderia supporters the only problem was a misunderstanding of his English. | AFP