Gone are the days when the individual won everything alone. The 2023 World Cup was actually built by Max Verstappen alone. The points he obtained to secure the drivers' title, 575, would have been enough to also win the constructors' cup given that the second-place finisher, Mercedes, had stopped at 409. The photograph of an overwhelming technical dominance, almost embarrassing for the opponents.
After twelve months, things have changed drastically. In ten races the RB20 won seven, true, but the overwhelming dominance is a distant memory. The feeling is that Max Verstappen got more than the vehicle deserved. The driver who shows himself to be stronger than the car.
A series of difficult races for Sergio Perez has led team principal Christian Horner to urge him to recapture the "fantastic" form seen at the start of 2024. Perez did not go below P5 in the first six Grands Prix of the year, taking four podiums in that time. However, from Imola, Checo embarked on a sensational negative streak: eighth, DNF, DNF, eighth. Few things.
![Sergio Perez](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sergio-Perez-jpg.webp)
Red Bull can no longer wait for Perez
“We need Checo in the mix. He knows it and the team knows it. If it is at the bottom of the ranking we lose strategic options. Sergio, in the first four or five races this year, has been fantastic. We just need to get him back into that headspace. I think he had a couple of tough races and things didn't go his way. Let's hope he gains some confidence for the next racesAnd".
“Before the race, our simulations said that P8 was the maximum starting from 11th on the grid, so he achieved it, he did it with a three-stop strategy. I think, and I hope, that he will take some confidence from that race and hopefully he can carry that into the next two weekends“, Horner said.
For his part, Perez said he had at least learned good lessons from the weekend in Barcelona with Red Bull coming under increasing pressure from rivals Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren.
“It was a good weekend in terms of learning and understanding, so hopefully we will be able to get back to the top in the next events,” Perez said. “Barcelona is probably one of the most difficult places to overtake: it's where you damage your tires the most with dirty air.”
“So yeah, I'm pretty disappointed. But I think, given where I was starting from, it was pretty much the best we could do. We had to fight hard to get those points because the race wasn't as easy as I hoped, so we struggled quite a bit." the Mexican explained.
The next two races will tell whether Checo will return to acceptable driving levels or whether he will continue in this semi-comatose state, sportingly speaking, which is now starting to scare Red Bull who knows that Verstappen, despite being a true champion, sooner or later will need a shoulder to beat increasingly fierce competition and who can ride in tandem.
Crediti foto: Oracle Red Bull Racing