Sergio Perez is under fire, under the microscope, under the cosh no matter how you look at it. When his Red Bull team boss Christian Horner openly boasts of Daniel Ricciardo is ready to step into the Mexican's shoes
Perez needs to react with immediate effect, at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix without a Q1 or Q2 exit, and at least making Max work for his points, and inevitable title. Jeddah and Baku are templates for him to refer to.
One can imagine a Netflix Drive to Survive scene of this nature: GoPro shoulder cam following Perez as he enters the Red Bull motorhome in the Hungarian Grand Prix paddock. The first visit, to team principal Christian Horner's office goes something like this:
Perez: "Ola Chefe!"
Horner: "Ola, Checo how are things? Good flight? How are the little ones? Blah, blah, blah..."
Perez: "Si, all good Chefe. How is Mrs SpiceGirl? Blah, blah, blah..."
Getting up to leave, Horner looks at his driver and says with that wince-smile of his: "Hungary is an important race for you..."
Perez: "Si, Chefe."
Horner: "Ola, Checo how are things? Good flight? How are the little ones? Blah, blah, blah..."
Perez: "Si, all good Chefe. How is Mrs SpiceGirl? Blah, blah, blah..."
Getting up to leave, Horner looks at his driver and says with that wince-smile of his: "Hungary is an important race for you..."
Perez: "Si, Chefe."
As he alights the TP office, GoPro on his shoulder, live and Netflixing all this, it hones in on Helmut Marko heading his way, to whom Perez reacts with an: "Ola Doctor. Alles gut?"
Marko: "Jaja. Checo, Hungary is an important race for you..."
Marko: "Jaja. Checo, Hungary is an important race for you..."
Then Adrian Newey swings by and after some chitchat, the RBR team's tech boss pops the inevitable parting remark: "This is an important race for you..."
Then an encounter with Verstappen. After pleasantries are exchanged between the RBR teammates, and a good luck fist-bump, Max departs with: "Hey, dude this is an important race for you..."
End of scene.
Why is the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend so important for Checo?
Important because, in line of sight, Daniel Ricciardo is coveting Perez's RBR seat and back on the F1 grid, a very real threat and making no secret of his intent either.
The Australian is at AlphaTauri to find his mojo and destroy his new teammate Yuki Tsunoda so he is out of the 2025 RBR driver picture. All this to make a strong case to become Verstappen's teammate, at the expense of Checo, when the veteran's contract runs out at the end of 2024.
If the above [invented] Netflix scene, were true ahead of Round 11 of the 2023 F1 World Championship, no surprise if the RBR PR folk quoted Perez in their preview as followed: "Hungary is an important race for me." Which they did.
Why? Perez has the answers that every F1 fan already knows. Of course, he addressed the 'elephant oin the room' when he alluded to his awful Saturday form: "It’s about getting my whole weekend in a complete place. I know I have fallen short in qualifying at times this season, so my focus has to be on having a successful Saturday.
"I know I have the race pace on a Sunday and an incredible car that should be on the podium every weekend. I have been in Milton Keynes working hard with my Team on making improvements. I spent the off weekend also in an F1 car!"
That car Checo refers to - penned by design genius maestro Adrian Newey and the clever people - also happens to be the fastest by far of the contraptions on the F1 grid this season.
Madrid showrun was a shrewd confidence booster by Red Bull
Furthermore, Perez is also the kind of driver that needs attention or more aptly as Horner pointed out "an arm around his shoulder" does the trick. Indeed sending him to Spain for a show run was shrewd. It fired their veteran up: "I had great fun in Madrid for the showrun.
"Only Red Bull can shut down the busiest streets in a capital city and I love the fact as a Team we are constantly promoting motorsport to new audiences around the world, away from the racetrack," added Perez, with more enthusiasm seen in some time.
The 33-year-old has been advised, by pundits and from within his own team, that he should stop thinking he is WDC material (probably only he and his family believe that) while Max is around. Rather play second fiddle to the best in the business, and entrench himself as the next best before he gets shown the door.
In stark contrast unlike Perez, Verstappen in the sister car is making the most of the best car on the grid which the Red Bull RB19 certainly is. He is targeting a streak of seven wins this season as he gallops to a third F1 title in three years.
Red Bull can also usurp McLaren in a record that stands since 1988
For that incredible record, they are tied on 11 successive Grand Prix wins in a row - and thus claim the record for the longest unbroken winning streak in the sport's history.
The man most likely to do the business is Verstappen. Hunting his ninth GP win of the season and his 44th F1 victory, Betway and all bookies' for that matter have him as outright favourite for victory on Sunday at Hungaroring.
Betway F1 odds for the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix
And with upgrades expected, the question is not if Max will win, but by how much. And with it repeat his first and only victory at the venue he scored last year. Powering to a famous victory from tenth on the grid. Until that point, one of his finest of very fine days in an F1 cockpit. [Belgium came later.]
Verstappen: We have a couple of upgrades this weekend
In the RBR preview of the 38th Hungarian Grand Prix happening this weekend, Verstappen said: "It's always an interesting one. Last year it was tricky to make the right calls with the incoming rain and colder temperatures. As a team, we remained calm and made all the right decisions.
"We have a couple of upgrades this weekend, hopefully, they will do what we expect them to do so we can find extra performance for the upcoming races. Let’s see where we stand on a track where you run high downforce with relatively low-speed corners, it’s an amazing track to drive and very technical as well.
"Definitely, a place I always look forward to coming back to," added Verstappen who secured his maiden F1 pole position in Hungary in 2019. In doing so, he became the 100th driver to start from pole since the inception of the World Championship in 1950.
An interesting stat supplied by the Red Bull media team is that if either Max or Checo finishes in the top three this weekend, it will be the 250th podium F1 finish for the energy drinks team. Their very first one came courtesy of David Coulthard at the 2006 Monaco GP.
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