Sergio Perez concerned about his declining performance. Sixth at the end of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, Sergio Perez once again limited the damage after another complicated Saturday when he failed to make it past the Q2 stage for the second time in a row, while he was eliminated from Q1 in Monaco following a crash.

Thanks to his sixth place in Montreal, Sergio Perez was able to maintain his second place in the drivers’ championship, but his team-mate Max Verstappen – winner of the race – scored enough points to move further up the standings and now has a 69-point lead over Perez, with the Mexican seeing a trailing Fernando Alonso behind by just nine points.

Indeed team boss Christian Horner is now admitting that he expects Red Bull to win every single race in 2023, but one must say that it won’t be too many with the Mexican driver based on current form.

 

Can Red Bull win every race in 2023?

Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted for the first time this year after the Canadian Grand Prix that his team could possibly win every race this season, although there are obviously many parameters involved.

The Milton Keynes-based team has won all eight races so far this year (six for Verstappen and two for Perez) and even has a nine-race winning streak going back to the 2022 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

The question of whether a dominant team can win every race in a single season is often asked in Formula 1, but so far no team in the history of the world championship has managed to win every race in a single season.

 

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A photo finish for @lance_stroll, taking P9 on the final lap of the #CanadianGP! 📸

An epic way to finish his home race!

🎥 x @F1pic.twitter.com/gHVyWWKts3

— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) June 20, 2023

 

McLaren record ready to be broken?

The closest the McLaren team has come to such a record was in 1988, when Frenchman Alain Prost and his team-mate Ayrton Senna between them won fifteen of the sixteen races that year. Another team that has had great success in F1 but has never won every race in the same season is Mercedes, which in 2016 won 19 of the 21 rounds on the calendar.

With such dominance since the start of the 2023 season, many believe that Red Bull could well become the first team in Formula 1 to win every race in a single season, and when asked about this by team boss Christian Horner, the British man is now less categorical than he was at the start of the year and also believes that Red Bull can do it but that all the planets will have to align.

“Can we do it? Yes. Will we do it? Who knows, because there are so many variables in this sport,” Christian Horner told Sky Sports after his driver Max Verstappen’s victory in Canada on Sunday.

 

Wolff reveals Mercedes next big update

 

 

Verstappen could do it, Perez looking less likely?

Max Verstappen has won six of the eight races already contested, including four in a row. The margin between him and the competition seems to be shrinking, since at the end of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, won by the Dutchman, the gap to Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin (second) was “only” nine seconds, while in Spain a fortnight earlier Verstappen had a 24-second advantage over Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and a 27-second lead over Alonso’s Aston Martin in Monaco.

But for Christian Horner, it was perfectly normal for the gaps to close in Canada on a relatively short circuit: “On this track, the gap is smaller. We’d be surprised if that wasn’t the case,” said Horner.

Horner in the meantime was less happy with Perez’s performance in Canada, particularly after a poor qualifying saying:

“Unfortunately for Checo, he just didn’t get that first lap in on the slick tyre when the circuit was in the window, then he came back onto the inter because it was too wet for the slicks, so it was frustrating for him.

“However, unlike Monaco, this is a track that you can overtake at, the forecast is saying it’ll be a dry race, he’s a great racer and he’s got a fast car, so I’d be disappointed if we weren’t much further up the order tomorrow.”

Schumacher slams Leclerc attitude

 

Perez hopes for ‘reset’ dashed

Perez was hoping for a ‘reset’ in Canada after two difficult races, but once again found himself in trouble and must bounce back if he is to keep alive his chances of fighting for his first world title in Formula 1 this year.

Interviewed after the race in Montreal on Sunday, the native of Guadalajara in Mexico admitted that he was more concerned about his lack of performance than his place in the drivers’ championship, although the two are obviously linked.

“It’s important that we take the time to understand the weekend because this race, in particular, has been low on pace and we need to get our act together,” said the Red Bull driver on Sunday evening in Montreal after the Canadian Grand Prix had finished.

“It was a difficult weekend. We couldn’t find the pace in qualifying and in the race. We’re going to work extremely hard to turn things around.

“I have confidence in myself and I know what I can do, but today we weren’t good. At the moment I’m more worried about my lack of performance than my place in the championship, because the pace just isn’t there.”

 

Red Bull admits to copying rivals

 

Perez: “….it’s been a difficult period for me”

While his last podium finish came at the Miami Grand Prix in May, Sergio Perez has seen his team-mate Max Verstappen win four consecutive races since then and knows that he must now aim for more than just a podium finish if he wants to get back into the game.

“It’s impossible not to feel pressure, because it’s been a difficult period. But I’m here to perform and I’m going to have to do that in the next few races,” added the Mexican.

The gap between Verstappen and Perez being what it is (69 points), Sergio Perez’s team-mate could now afford to drop out of two races that would still leave him leading the world championship.

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