I really thought Perez was ready to give Max a run for his money this year! It has gone from good to bad to worse to ??? I don't know if he will do better or even worse. I have no knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes... What leads to rise or fall. Max appears to be at the pinnacle right now!
For me I don't think Perez would've been actually capable of challenging Max over a season. Early in the season there were a series of tracks that really suit Perez's style. It was clear by Max's drive in Miami that any hopes of a championship was just a pipe dream for Perez. He needed Max to do a Schumacher 99 in order to even challenge really. The ''bad'' races Max had early in the season he was just playing with the tools in the car to see what did what, and even then he finished right on Perez's rear.
You need to compare apples with apples. In the same car, Max is doing better on tyre management and keeping the speed than Perez is. Give me a single reason why RB would intentionally sabotage Perez? For quali and the race Max again had some specification floors. In FP1 they did back to back testing. If someone showed a picture of Perez taken in FP1 and posted it during quali that easily makes someone believe they had different floors. What is Max Verstappen Doing That Sergio Perez Can't? | F1 2023 Telemetry Analysis - YouTube
Bas, i agree with you that Checo was dreaming if he ever believed he could chalenge Max, just like Bottas with Elton or Rubens with Michael, they can't, because they simply are not on the same level, they can match them from time to time, or even beat them at some particular track, or because the others have a bad day, but in the course of one season they just don't stand a chance, because these top drivers can drive at the very top level every single day, not only from time to time. Right now, Max is as perfect as you can get, he extracts the most of the car with ease, no mistakes, no one manages to pressure him, his team is faultless, and in these conditions he's unbeatable, just like any other top driver. Many people don't believe a team can prejudice one of the drivers, they can't understand the logic in it, but the fact is it happens, and quite often. Michael or Max don't need any help to beat their team mates, they are vastly superior to them, but the fact is they still get help from their teams to do it. Perez is often used as a test bed for new things, and this will hurt the balance of his car, they did the same with rubens, he was told that sometimes, at the end of the season he would be driving a car with next year parts, and he didn't even knew about it! As i told you, Markko loves Max (he clearly dislikes Checo) and he want's to make max a super star, with all the possible records, you canbet he prefers Max to win 20 races and Checo 0, then 15 to 5, because this will make Max looks even more amazing. It's just as simple as that.
I think what seriously comes into play is pure consistency. Vettel used to have it... when he lost it he became a 2nd page story. Lewis...for all the nonsense with him... is a great driver and delivers race after race after race with few mistakes. Max delivers race after race after race. They're all multi-champions. Checo has his days. He can't seem to deliver race after race. I think that in and of itself is what separates the greats.
Interesting attitude from Lawson. Something Checo probably is not feeling currently lol Lawson: Red Bull high-pressure environment a 'positive'
