Max Verstappen and his father are usually in agreement with each other, but it appears when it comes to his future team mate at Red Bull their opinions in fact differ.

Having come into Formula One aged just 17, the Dutch driver was paired alongside Carlos Sainz for the 2015 season. Since then he has had four other team mates in the form of Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Sergio Perez.

Depending on the showdown talks Dr. Marko has revealed will take place between himself and Christian Horner over the summer break, it is more than possible Max will have another team mate for the remaining ten races of the season.

 

 

 

Perez lack of contribution to force Red Bull’s hand

With just 51 points separating championship leaders Red Bull and McLaren, Perez has contributed just 21 points to the team’s total in the last seven race weekends. In the same period of time, Verstappen despite his troubles and winning just one race in the last four as delivered 129 points to the Red Bull cause, but the McLaren’s are closing in fast.

This means the gap has closed from Red Bull being 125 points ahead of McLaren when leaving Miami to just 51 ahead of this weekend’s Belgium Grand Prix.

While Liam Lawson is waiting in the wings for his Red Bull full time opportunity promised by Dr. Marko, its unlikely the dynamic New Zealand driver will be promoted first up to race alongside Max Verstappen. Lawson’s future must be decided by Red Bull before the resumption of the autumn F1 calendar given his contract expires during August.

Realistically only Daniel Ricciardo or Yuki Tsunoda will be moved up alongside the world champion, but the Verstappen’s don’t agree on who Max’s future partner should be.

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Max says Perez “best team mate”

Ricciardo has had an up and down year and is 9-4 down to the Japanese driver, yet in recent weeks he has looked more settled with the upgraded RB car. Tsunoda has 22 points so far this year and sits in twelfth in the drivers title race, while Ricciardo in thirteenth is 11 points behind his team mate.

It seems Verstappen hopes the team will retain Perez beyond the summer break recently stating he was the best team mate he’d ever had. “I would say what I have now with Checo [Perez] is definitely the best,” the Dutchman said. “I started of course very young in Formula 1 and I had, I think, also a very good relationship with Daniel [Ricciardo]. But at the time I was still only 18, 19 and I think where I am now as a person is completely different.”

Clearly Max is suggesting the dynamic this time around were Ricciardo to be promoted would be different than from when Verstappen was still learning his trade. In Baku back in 2018, Ricciardo and Verstappen collided down the high speed start/finish straight ending both driver’s race although the fall out from the team’s debrief appeared to decide in Daniel’s mind the team favoured Max and it was time to move on.

Jos Verstappen appears to favour Ricciardo’s promotion alongside Max as speaking to fomrula1.co.uk he claimed: “I do think maybe [Max] learnt the most from Daniel Ricciardo, a nice peer he got on very well with,” the 52-year-old said. “Max was a young guy then and Ricciardo really good, a qualifying beast.”

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Verstappen dominates in FP1

Yuki Tsunoda appears not to be in the running to replace Perez and this weekend will take sufficient power unit penalties to see him start at the back of the grid. Verstappen too will exceed the allowable number of powertrain components although his grid drop is just ten places so his best starting position is P11.

In practice one at Spa Francorchamps, Verstappen dominated the session, putting in a middle sector on his quali simulation 0.7 seconds quicker than Piastri who was next quickest. It appears Red Bull have set up the car with extra downforce to deliver the time in the more twisty sections of the circuit and rely on its natural speed along the straight.

Max also dominated the race simulation run and towards the end was over a second a lap quicker than his nearest challenger. Yet if he has to come through the field, Red Bull may need to reconsider their set up strategy to provide Max with the grunt required in sector one to overtake.

After a better performance last time out in Hungary where Perez came from P16 to finish two spots behind his team mate in P7, the Mexican driver is adamant his future does not depend on this weekend’s racing telling reporters: “I’m 100% sure [it won’t be my last race].”

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Perez says “100% sure” of future

“I know basically what’s in my contract, and I know the team trust in me, and I know where the main focus is, which is delivering on track. I’m not worried about [my future], I know where I stand. So that’s not my concern. My only concern I have is to get my season back on track,” he added.

Yet Dr. Marko has indicated Perez’s results will be reviewed over the summer break and when asked about these comments, Sergio remained bullish.

“I think that’s something to ask him. I haven’t spoken about that particular point. I feel the whole team is fully focused on getting our season back on track, and the rest is purely speculation.

“The team is really working hard with me to get the season back on track, and winning the Constructors’ Championship, it’s all what we are working on. There hasn’t been any further discussions other than on getting our season back on track.”

In fourteen visits to the iconic track in the Ardenne region of Belgium, Checo’s best results have been a pair of second places both delivered in 2022/23. Sergio will hope to improve his form this afternoon in FP2 having come home only 7th this morning and almost a second slower than Max Verstappen.

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FIA take action over Verstappen’s foul languag

This week the F1 commission met in London with a number of topics on there agenda. First up a suggested change to the points system which would award points down to P12, was rejected.

The topic of how to get young drivers more involved in Formula One was also tacked without much progress. The idea of wild card weekends where a junior driver replaces one who is full time for an entire weekend once a year was deemed impractical.

Also the topic of expletives reared its head following the radio messages from Max Verstappen (MV) to his engineer Gianpiero Liambiase (GL) during the Hungarian Grand Prix. The world champion’s fury began in the opening lap when he was told by the team to hand second place back to Lando Norris as the stewards were investigating him for “leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage.”  READ MORE