With Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez winning all seven races between them, 2023 has been very much the year of Red Bull so far. The Dutchman’s victories at Miami, Monaco and Spain have moved him 53 points ahead of his stablemate ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Once again the topic of domination was brought up. A mammoth battle with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 saw the 25-year-old come out on top at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in hugely controversial circumstances.
After a tough start to last season because of unreliability and the impressive speed of Charles Leclerc, Verstappen easily retained his title by 146 points.
“It’s nice sometimes to have good competition. Honestly, I enjoyed 2021 but I also enjoyed the way 2022 went.
“Of course, we had some reliability issues and the car was a bit heavy but it was also quite dominant towards the end.”
Red Bull’s leading man gets why people are fed up with one team winning everything. Nonetheless, he believes it’s up to the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes to improve to give them a proper challenge.
“For the sport in general, I understand that some people get a bit bored when one team is dominating. We saw it with Mercedes, we’ve seen it with Ferrari in the past and with Red Bull.
“For sure, I hope that more teams can get together. At least then, even if you have a little issue or whatever or you can’t get the set-up fully at 100%, there is another team to win.
“It is all about hard work. I appreciated what they were doing. It was super impressive at the time. I never really felt you had to stop that. It was all about trying to work harder and catch up.”
The question of Red Bull winning every single race in 2023 was asked to the 40-time Grand Prix winner again. As previously addressed, Verstappen thinks it’s pretty much impossible with the potential variabilities that can happen during a race.
“If you look at how we are performing now, yes, but it is very unrealistic. I think [that] because there will always be things that will go wrong in the season that are maybe sometimes out of your control.
“So I’m not thinking that is possible. But when you look at it realistically at the moment with how quick the car is, yes, it is.
“Last year was already quite crazy with 15 wins. But as long as I win the championship, that’s the most important.”
