The F1® Insider: Perez under pressure in 2023?
Thursday, 9 February 2023
This week: is Red Bull's "other" driver under the pump?
Sergio Perez has never been under more pressure to perform than he is coming into the 2023 Formula 1® season. Driving for the reigning constructors' champions in Red Bull Racing, the Mexican finished 2022 with more wins (two), points (305), podiums (12) and fastest laps (three) than in any single season of his 12-year career.
But Perez also comes into the 2023 Formula 1® season as a 33-year-old who owes his current place on the grid to Red Bull, is two races removed from an on-track spat with teammate Max Verstappen where team management supported their reigning two-time world champion, somehow didn't finish second in last year's drivers' championship despite driving the fastest car in Formula 1®, and has Daniel Ricciardo waiting in the wings should things go pear-shaped.
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So, can Perez really be under pressure after a career-best year - a year in which Red Bull won 17 of 22 races and swept both major championships?
Let's rewind to why Perez is at Red Bull in the first place. Out of a job at Racing Point at the end of 2020, Perez won the penultimate race of that season at the Sakhir GP for his maiden Formula 1® victory; he was available, and Red Bull had a need, and a marriage of convenience was consummated just 13 days later.
In 2021, Perez was the perfect wingman for Verstappen, picking up the pieces on the rare days the Dutchman faltered and then played a crucial role in making life hard for Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in the Abu Dhabi season finale where Verstappen took the world title.
The perfect support act, a subservient second wheel who knew his place and proved to be an ideal team player.
But then came 2022, and a win for Perez at Monaco that saw tongues wagging after Perez crashed at the end of qualifying, denying Verstappen a shot at pole on a circuit where passing is close to impossible. It wasn't like Verstappen needed the extra points – he won the title with four races remaining – but Dutch media suggested Verstappen's long memory was at play when he refused to allow Perez to repass him after being allowed by in Brazil when the pair were running in sixth and seventh places, the points completely immaterial for a team that had won the constructors' title two races earlier.
Predictably, the team tried to hose down any controversy after Perez's comments about Verstappen in the aftermath of Brazil, and the flashpoint took attention away from the fact that Perez somehow finished behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in the drivers' standings despite several high-profile Leclerc errors and Ferrari strategy failures.
Perez beat Verstappen in qualifying just four times in 22 races last year, and by season's end, his average deficit to the Dutchman was more than three-tenths of a second – more than the gap Lando Norris had over Ricciardo at McLaren, but discussed far less because Red Bull were winning.
So, Perez is under pressure in 2023, last year's numbers notwithstanding.
Can he repeat or better that third-place finish in the standings with Ferrari moving forwards, and Hamilton determined to bounce back for Mercedes after the first winless campaign of his career?
Is the unrest of Brazil 2022 a sign of things to come, or a lesson that – no matter what – he's a clear second in the pecking order at Red Bull for as long as Verstappen is there? And will the presence of Ricciardo as third driver – who, let's not forget, took seven of his eight Grands Prix victories in Red Bull colours – lurk in the background as Perez grapples with the reality of his situation?
It’s a tricky tightrope to tread. Be better than last year, but not so much better that he's bothering Verstappen regularly, all while an immensely popular and previously successful driver who has familiarity with the team sits and waits for a chance to get into a race-winning car again.
Pressure on Perez? You tell us…
