'Verstappen's view is that Perez should know his Red Bull place' — MPH

F1

After two F1 world titles, Max Verstappen believes that a team-mate who can't match him week in, week out, is only a support driver. And that creates a tension between him and Perez for 2023, writes Mark Hughes

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez hold their Abu Dhabi GP trophies

Verstappen has had priority at Red Bull thus far – but Perez isn't happy with the situation

Red Bull

display_e35f2226d3

Max Verstappen has a partnership with Viaplay, which recently produced a documentary about him, with his co-operation. Further comments he made to the streaming service surfaced last week concerning the tensions created within a team when team-mates cannot keep pace with the de facto number one. They could be read as a piece of advice to Sergio Perez, even though he couched his observation in terms of how Valtteri Bottas operated at Mercedes.

“Every year [Bottas] starts fresh. But after a few races you realise it’s not going to happen again and you accept your role. He still finished on podiums, he won a few races and took pole positions. You just have to accept that the driver next to you is just a bit better. That’s fine, that can happen. It’s important that he accepted it. Some drivers can’t do that and then it goes completely wrong. Then they don’t survive for very long. I’m not going to name names, but you have to accept your role. You can’t live in a fairytale world.”

This is against the backdrop of the controversy in Brazil this year when Verstappen refused to hand back sixth place to Perez, and his subsequent inferred reference to his belief that Perez had deliberately crashed in the final moments of Monaco qualifying, thereby denying Verstappen the lap which was going to put him ahead of Perez.

Related article

Regardless of how strong the evidence of Perez’s accident being deliberate is, the crucial point is that Verstappen believes that it was. So from his perspective, Monaco this year was the first time in their 29 races together where Perez had been close enough to properly compete with him (accepting that the Jeddah safety car had denied him that opportunity earlier in the season) – and at the very first opportunity, he pulls a foul. That’s how Verstappen sees it.

No-one seriously doubts that this team is built around the talent of Verstappen. But it is his natural speed which has made that so. Given the mutual success he and the team have enjoyed, he assumes the team leadership role. A team-mate such as Perez who was occasionally able to get close but who in general is not in the same league, should not, Verstappen believes, think it’s ok to do anything other than continue to be a support driver. Even if there are occasional weekends when he has comparable performance, he should know his place. Certainly, any competing which veers into the realms of a deliberate foul against the team number one is beyond the pale. That’s Verstappen’s view on it and he carries a lot of weight in the team.

Sergio Perez celebrates winning the Monaco Grand Prix on the podium

Victorious Monte Carlo weekend stored up controversy for Perez

Grand Prix Photo

It’s a tricky line for the team to tread. They are his employer notionally, but in reality they are his partner. The days of Verstappen having to compete with an equal number one and of being made to apologise to the team at the factory when they clashed – as with Daniel Ricciardo, Baku 2018 – are long gone. His status as a double world champion has altered the balance of power without it ever being said. Now it’s being said.

Related article

They potentially have many years of mutual glory ahead of them, but one thing which might trip their unity up would be Perez doing anything like a repeat of Monaco. If Verstappen is correct in his assessment of a deliberate foul, from Perez’s perspective that action effectively won him the Monaco Grand Prix. If he can ever get close again, will he be able to resist the temptation to nudge things in his favour below the line? He is a competitive and proud racing driver, after all. That would present the team with a difficult problem. Or does he accept his place and hope for a few crumbs from the table?

These are the tensions created by extremes of performance.