A Red Bull Constructors' Title is More Bitter Than Sweet For Perez
The dominant team left Japan champions, but one driver failed to finish
Max Verstappen led the Formula 1 Red Bull Racing team to victory on Sunday. The team won its sixth constructors’ championship at the Suzuka Circuit.
The title, awarded to the team that has engineered the most competitive car, is determined by the cumulative score from each team’s driver duo throughout the season.
With six races left on the calendar, how did Red Bull run away with the trophy so soon? The weekend stretched the gulf in points between Red Bull and the team’s second-place rival, Mercedes, to 318 points. Mercedes’ George Russel and Lewis Hamilton will not bridge that gap to get ahead with just a handful of races remaining.
Verstappen is projected to win the drivers’ title during the Qatar sprint race in two weeks’ time.
Although the two Red Bull drivers rank first and second in the drivers’ championship standings, fans were quick to diminish Sergio “Checo'' Perez's contribution.
Perez retired in Japan after causing a string of collisions. Once in the garage, the former Racing Point driver had an unserved penalty. In a legal loophole, the team wheeled Perez back on track to avoid the unlikely chance that the penalty would carry over into future races. In a sequence of apologies to the other nine F1 teams, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) has considered rewriting the rule.
Perez crawls behind Verstappen in the rankings by 177 points — the largest disparity between teammates compared to the rest of the grid.
Perez’s contract expires in 2024, unlike his teammate’s commitment until 2028, leaving the racing driver’s future at the team riddled with uncertainty.
Rumors have swirled about the potential of the second Red Bull seat — ranging from mundane to absurd — and have brought names like Williams’ Alex Albon, AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and Mclaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris into consideration. Some speculate that Red Bull will continue to favor freshmen and sign 21-year-old Liam Lawson after a striking few races filling in for an injured Ricciardo.
For a team known for its cut-throat behavior — ditching drivers like Albon, Pierre Gasly, Daniil Kvyat, and Nyck de Vries mid-season — Perez’s rocky year doesn’t forecast a promising future with the energy drink giant.
The part most viewers, commentators and even Red Bull’s very own team principal can’t wrap their heads around is why a driver with 34 podiums and six wins to his name can’t seem to keep the car in a straight line, let alone get it up to speed.
Eight podiums and two race wins in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan should place Perez above drivers like Norris in the debate over whose had the better season. However, even before the mid-season improvement in McLaren’s car performance, Norris milked an impressive ride out of a finicky car. Perez, in contrast, has failed to meet expectations with a car that just won the world title for engineering innovation.
While there is accuracy in arguing any driver would pale in comparison when scrutinized next to Verstappen, Perez has failed to provide the consistency second drivers are known for. From retirements to crashes that reveal the physics behind Red Bull’s success, Perez has cost the team an estimated $1.08 million this season according to RacingNews365.
Whether it's the pressure, the car set-up or the curse of being Verstappen’s lesser half, Perez seems to be turning in his nameplate as the “Mexican Minister of Defense” and the “King of the Streets.”
Overall, it wasn’t a good weekend for teammate sportsmanship.
While Leclerc was happy to help Sainz deliver the first non-Red Bull win of the season in Singapore, the latter questioned Ferrari’s pit stop strategy once the roles — and grid positions — were reversed in Sunday’s race. The decision left the Spanish driver behind Hamilton where he finished in sixth. Poised for a potential podium, Leclerc finished just shy of third. Last weekend, the team favored Sainz’s starting pole position and left Leclerc to trail behind.
The field has been tight all season, leaving drivers to plummet down the pecking order during a pit stop or failing to qualify by a thousandth of a second.
“The field is now super close,” Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ engineering director, said at Thursday's press conference. “You look at some of the gaps we had 12 months ago and you can have a decent qualifying position, you might be fourth or fifth on the grid but you might be eight [or] nine-tenths off. Now if you do that, you end up getting bumped in Q1 or Q2.”
Last week brought disputes over who Ferrari was favoring as the number one driver now that Sainz secured a first-place finish and has consistently scored points all season. Sainz’s advocates and Leclerc’s doubters fell into uncertain territory this week as Leclerc was on top once again.
When there isn’t a clear distinction between veteran and novice, race strategies begin to look murky. However, the dynamic also spices up rankings and preconceived driver abilities. While some spectators may roll their eyes at the “There are no number one and number two drivers, our drivers are equal,” comments, they hold ground.
There is a well-defined experienced and rookie relationship at McLaren, but that may be tested.
Piastri, McLaren’s resident rookie, took Sainz’s place in the news headlines this week and crossed the waving flag in third after starting the race on the front row behind Verstappen. His first podium comes after just 16 appearances in F1. The result, along with his performance throughout the season, spells promising things for the Australian.
Piastri’s teammate, Norris, was quick to ask his race engineer to swap places, as the more experienced McLaren driver had the faster pace. Norris went on to finish second, awarding the Woking-based team a double podium.
However, as Piastri inches toward his first win while Norris hasn’t secured a top podium finish yet, the clear-cut driver rankings may be less concrete.
Both Mercedes and Alpine also faced teammate tussles. Alpine instructed Gasly to surrender his ninth-place position to his teammate on the last lap in order for the faster of the two to overtake Fernando Alonso. Once in ninth, however, Esteban Ocon wasn’t able to sneak around the Aston Martin.
In a similar vein, Hamilton and Russell were told to swap the driving order. The seven-time world champion warned that with Russell’s pace, the team was at risk of losing positions to Sainz who was closely crouching behind. Russell attempted to put up a fight, even suggesting they use the same strategy that won Sainz the race last week, but ultimately gave up the position.
In Singapore, Sainz took his foot off the gas pedal, allowing Norris to enable the Drag Reduction System (DRS) and hold off the hovering competition. Sainz was quick to see Mercedes contemplating using a familiar strategy.
“They’re using my trick against me,” Sainz said into the radio.
Although filled with frustrated drivers, the Japanese Grand Prix marked a return to the norm with Verstappen up top. The next race in Qatar will likely crown the two-time world champion yet again as the 2023 FIA F1 World Drivers’ Champion.
Photo courtesy of Mark Thompson/Getty Images