Sergio Perez was enjoying life in Red Bull livery after claiming the third pole of his career at this season’s Miami Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 2023 Formula One world championship. “Checo! Checo! Checo!” the crowd chanted while waving Mexican flags even as Perez smiled in satisfaction with how his season was shaping up.
He trailed teammate Max Verstappen by just six points in the standings, with the two drivers having split the first four races in a Red Bull sweep. Team boss Christian Horner, moreover, had given his approval for Perez to race for both the win and the championship. Since joining Red Bull in 2021, Perez had been the clear number two, playing the part of consummate team-man dutifully following orders, but Horner’s words were a sign that things were different this season.
The Mexican knew that the Miami GP offered him the rare opportunity to lead the drivers’ championship for the first time and simultaneously rattle Verstappen’s cage. A third win in five races would have lifted the 33-year-old above his already illustrious teammate, eight years his junior, and been quite a statement of intent.
Perez was not the only one aware of the significance of his position. Experts and F1 neutrals, who experienced a tinge of dismay when they saw how dominant Red Bull was early in the season, were hoping they could at least watch an intra-team title fight — not another Verstappen victory parade, which was the case in 2022.
“If he [Perez] can pull out a win [in Miami], that would be a massive deal for him,” said former world champion Jenson Button. “I think that will give him big confidence for the season. We haven’t seen him throughout a season be as competitive as Max… Checo has been a lot more up and down. But if he can do it in Miami, I think he has a chance to fight for the championship.”
Campaign unravels
But Perez could not convert his pole into a victory in Miami, and while finishing second to Verstappen did not damage his chances, worse was to follow. His campaign unravelled as he finished 16th, fourth and sixth in the next three races, committing the sort of unforced errors that title contenders simply cannot afford. The most dramatic of them came during qualifying in Monaco, a race he won last year. Regarded as one of F1’s best drivers on street circuits, he lost control of the rear, thudded into the barriers and had to start the race last.
Such mistakes in qualifying meant he was trying to limit his losses in the race, even as Verstappen strung victories together with masterful ease.
When Perez failed to qualify in the top 10 for the fourth race in a row in Austria — he had laps deleted for exceeding track limits — the questions about his future in Red Bull began to grow more strident.
It did not help that Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko continued to be critical of Perez’s driving in public, comparing it unfavourably with Verstappen’s. When he confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo, the team’s reserve driver, would take the wheel of the RB19 for tyre testing after this weekend’s British GP and said the team was looking to “keep options open” as a part of “succession” planning, the rumour mill went into overdrive.
One of the theories was that Ricciardo, who previously drove for Red Bull (2014-18), would take a seat with sister outfit AlphaTauri, replacing underperforming Nick de Vries. Such a move would allow the Australian to remove some competitive rust and make a seamless transition back into the Red Bull seat if Perez were to be dumped.
Horner’s backing
With speculation mounting, Horner was forced to throw his weight behind Perez. “Everybody’s fully behind him,” Horner told Sky Sports, replying to a query on possible driver changes. “Any talk of replacing Checo is wide of the mark.” While Perez will have welcomed the backing, he will also know that Red Bull has not always shown patience with floundering drivers.
Horner diagnosed Perez’s mistakes as a consequence of the pressure the Mexican was piling on himself. Horner urged his driver “to stop thinking about the championship and just drive”, saying “if he just frees his shoulders up a bit, it will just come to him more naturally”.
But it is difficult not to feel the weight of constantly being judged against Verstappen’s elite standards, something both Horner and Perez have spoken about.
“There is not a driver out there today, I believe, that would have beaten Max in that car today,” Horner said at the Spanish GP. “So he [Perez] is up against a driver that is at the top of his form. Mentally it’s a really tough thing to deal with.”
“It is not easy being Max’s teammate because he is winning all the time,” Perez said. “We have seen it in the past, it is not always easy for a teammate to survive. But I believe in myself.”
Welcome boost
Perez’s weekend in Austria did improve after his nightmare in qualifying. He qualified second in the sprint shootout and, after near-miss moments with Verstappen, finished second in the 24-lap 100km sprint race. On race day, he worked his way up from 15th to third, his first podium finish since Miami. It was a welcome boost for Perez after the dramatic dip in performance.
“I haven’t lost it, you know, you don’t go from winning races to all of a sudden being a very bad driver,” Perez said. “I think people in the sport forget the amount of detail we are operating at. When you don’t have everything together, then you see a big difference. But yes, I know that I’ve had a rough period. Many drivers have had that but it seems to be even bigger when a Red Bull driver has it. I hope we are back now and we can keep some consistency.”
Perez trails Verstappen by 81 points going into Silverstone this weekend. With 13 rounds remaining, he isn’t out of the title picture, given how quickly and drastically things can change in motorsport. But Perez, as Horner advised, would do well not to think of the championship.
Winning his third race of the season — something he has never previously managed — would be a good short-term goal to start with. There is one silver lining in competing against Verstappen as a teammate: when you beat him, you prove your worth. If Perez can manage it a few more times this season, the questions about his future with Red Bull will vanish.
