Even with the 2023 F1 season already underway, It’s still going to be a very long season ahead of us, that I can assure you. Originally this season’s championship was scheduled to feature 24 races, but since the Chinese Grand Prix has been cancelled, we will be having a total of 23 races this year.
The season started on March 5th with the Bahrain Grand Prix, however, we will also see the return of the Qatar Grand Prix in October while a new Saturday night race will go down in Las Vegas as the penultimate Grand Prix of the season 18th November. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as usual will once again end the season on the 26th of November.
So far this season, we’ve had 2 grand prix (The Sakhir GP in Bahrain and the Saudi Arabia GP) go down, where Red Bull’s duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez won each respectfully. With that in mind, It is safe to say that the defending champion – Team Red Bull is the team to beat for both the drivers and constructors championship again this season.
For the purpose of this article, I will be highlighting some of the things I feel will transpire this season based on my expertise.
1) THE POWER TUSSLE BETWEEN RED BULL’S DUO OF MAX VERSTAPPEN AND SERGIO PEREZ: A CURSE OR A BLESSING IN DISGUISE FOR THE TEAM?
Normally, it should be the desire of every team in F1 that both of their drivers are competing for the gong because at the end of the day, the points accrued by both cumulates to the advantage of the team on the log.
However, I think this could also mean trouble for team Red Bull if not managed well. To put this into perspective, Max Verstappen – the defending champion has won two consecutive drivers championship and he’s hoping to make it three-in-a-row this season, a feat last achieved by Sir Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes when he won 4 consecutive championship between 2017-2020.
Sergio Perez, his co-driver at Red Bull looks ambitious as well. Like I said earlier, he’s already won 1 grand prix (Saudi Arabia GP) this season. He’s also currently on 43 points, just 1point behind his teammate, Max on 44 points.
An head to head from Sergio might not bode well with Max because he is known to be “hot-headed”, an obsessed winner who seems not to care about what happens to his teammate. For example, The events of the São Paulo Grand Prix last season brought to light the fractured nature of the relationship between the Red Bull pairing after Verstappen refused to let his team-mate pass for sixth position. According to Sam Hall, he described the situation as a “Ticking Time Bomb”, and I couldn’t agree less.
After the race, Perez was heard on Radio saying “It shows who he really is”, referring to Max’s selfishness. Another scenario was this season in the Saudi Arabia’s Grand Prix where Sergio won the race and Max finished second. Max literally said he wasn’t happy with the results despite the fact that it was the best outcome for the team.
In the post-race press conference, Verstappen said:
“Of course, I recovered to second which is good and in general, the whole feeling in the team, everyone is happy.
“But personally, I am not happy.
“I am not here to be second, especially when you are working very hard at the factory to arrive here in a good state and make sure everything is spot on and you have to do a recovery race – which I like, I don’t mind doing it.
“But when you are fighting it out for a championship and it looks like it is only two cars, we have to make sure the two cars are reliable.”
That up there is what I call fire on the mountain. A looming danger waiting to explode. I am not a prophet of doom, but for Max to have publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with his teammates success, it shows that he thinks about himself alone. Is that selfishness or just passion for success? Whatever it is, I feel that’s a dangerous man to have as a teammate. He could sabotage his partner’s success when it doesn’t favor him.
Apparently, Perez is the second driver in that Red Bull’s team, even if not clearly stated. And truth be told, the number one driver will always have the team’s priority and also the best opportunity to win the championship. But if the number two driver creates that opportunity for himself, he gets the priority and hence promoted to number one. Thus the chances of an actual number two winning a championship is smaller compared to the number one driver.
But I still feel it’s not enough reason to stop Perez from winning the driver’s championship at the end of the season. After all, he’s driving the same car with Max and he has shown so far that he’s got what it takes to compete with the big boys when push comes to shove.
Also, Over the years in F1, we’ve seen a couple of “number 2 drivers” winning the driver’s championship ahead of the number 1.
In 2017, Nico Rosberg won ahead of his Mercedes teammate – Lewis Hamilton on the final race of the season. In 1979, Judy Scheckter won the title ahead of his Ferrari teammate Gilles Villeneuve, who was a seemingly better driver.
In 1967, Denny Hulme won the world drivers’ championship, driving for Brabham ahead of his team-mate, Jack Brabham was both the team co-owner and the reigning champion from 1966.
Finally In 1950, Alfa Romeo employed Guiseppe Farina to partner the immortal Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio. With the latter having car reliability issues in the final race, he was forced to retire even though he was ahead and Farina went on to win his only title.
It’s left to be seen whether it will be a Red Bull 1-2 Title tussle at the end of the season but we can’t rule out the possibility, especially with their rivals not looking convincing enough for now.
In the case of both drivers clashing, I think the team principal – Chris Horner needs to hone his Driver’s Management Skills and instill the culture of teamwork to prevent a likely havoc for team Red Bull.
Like I said, the power tussle is just a theory, but let’s wait and see as it pans out at the end.
Watch out for this space as I also talk on:
– IS THERE AN OUTSIDE CHANCE FOR ASTON MARTIN?
– FERRARI TO GROW INTO THE SEASON AS IT PROGRESSES.
– SIR LEWIS HAMILTON’S RETIREMENT MIGHT COME EARLIER THAN WE ENVISAGED.
Discussion about this post