Red Bull has won every race this season, but can dominance continue with an underperforming #2 driver?
The headlines will say it was a perfect day for Red Bull Racing at the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen won his 41st career race to tie legendary Ayrton Senna to the all-time Grand Prix winners list. Victory for Verstappen also sealed the 100th win for Red Bull as a team, a remarkable feat for a team that only formed in 2005.
However, considering Red Bull’s dominance, Sergio Perez’s absence from the podium for a third consecutive race is a worrying trend. Perez also failed to make it out of the second stage of qualifying for three GP races–the Monaco, Spanish, and (last weekend) Canadian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull car is inarguably the class of the F1 2023 field, having won all eight races thus far. Max Verstappen has six victories and finished 2nd in the other two. Verstappen won by +20 seconds over the closest non-Red Bull car in four of those wins. Even when Verstappen has had a difficult qualifying, as in Saudi Arabia and Miami, he easily stormed through the field to finish 2nd behind teammate Perez in Saudi, and to win in Miami, passing Perez on the way to victory. This shows just how fast and superior the Red Bull car is now.
However, since that second place in Miami, which followed a victory in Baku, Perez has fallen not only off the pace. He was beaten by Fernando Alonso and the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in every race that followed, even though all three drivers admit their respective cars are incapable of challenging Red Bull in terms of outright pace.
Now, Perez is 69 points behind teammate Verstappen in the Driver’s World Championship standings and only nine points ahead of Fernando Alonso in the standings, with Lewis Hamilton lurking only 15 points further back. With a superior car, it is inconceivable that Perez could finish lower than second in the Driver’s Championship.
So, is Perez’s performance a problem Red Bull needs to fix? That may seem irrelevant because Red Bull is clearly the class of Formula One 2023, currently holding a 154-point Constructor’s Championship lead over 2nd-placed Mercedes. However, with a reduced development budget and wind tunnel time this season due to both Formula One’s cost cap rules–and the extra punishment dished out to Red Bull in these areas due to their breaking of the cost cap limit in 2021–Red Bull knows their main rivals will soon start to narrow the performance advantage that the team holds.
The bottom line is this: Perez needs to perform in case problems were to befall Verstappen. While that may seem unlikely, the ability to step up is required of any driver who occupies the #2 seat. The complication at Red Bull is that Verstappen is not only dominating the circuit, but he also dominates Red Bull with a demanding personality. It is not hyperbolic to assert that Verstappen believes the team needs him more than he needs the team and that Red Bull principal Christian Horner allows him to exercise control.
That said, teams have two drivers for a reason, and at the moment, Perez is not delivering for his team. But it is unclear who would replace him if Red Bull decided to make a change. No current Red Bull junior driver has Formula One experience, and the team has tried putting numerous drivers in the #2 seat, and none of those candidates made the cut.
That said, several drivers have done well since leaving Red Bull. Pierre Gasly is an example. Dismissed halfway through the 2019 season, Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix for Alpha Tauri. Gasly’s replacement, Alex Albon, lasted only one season but has since excelled at Williams. He took seventh in Canada last weekend–only one place behind Perez–and was voted by fans as the Driver of the Day.
While it’s impossible to way what will come next, it’s easy to assert that the Red Bull team needs a strong #2 driver. That is not currently the situation for a team that could make Formula One history this season by winning every race.
