Verstappen has been utterly untouchable in 2023, stretching out a 177-point lead over team-mate and nearest challenger Checo and putting himself in a position to clinch his third consecutive World Championship during the sprint race in Qatar.
This kind of form has placed his team-mate’s performances under the microscope with conversations about Red Bull’s development path bubbling back up to the surface. Toto Wolff publicly expressed his curiosity about whether or not the constructor champions were building primarily for Verstappen.
Mercedes’ team principal suggested: “We’ve seen that Max has destroyed every single team-mate that was with him. Whether or not it’s his ability to create a car around himself that is very tricky to control, but fast if you can, and it makes those gaps, I haven’t heard any explanations, but… Odd.”
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Norris, who has posed the biggest threat to Verstappen on multiple occasions this year with his four second-place finishes, is not convinced that Red Bull are favouring Verstappen over Perez in 2023.
Speaking to RacingNews365 about the topic, Norris said: “It’s not down to the team to just make a car design for a person. Maybe that’s a perfect world. It’s our job to deliver no matter what the car is.
“Max said something very similar the other day after Toto made the comment about the Red Bull. I don’t think you can just design a car for someone. It just doesn’t work like that. It’s very much down to the driver to drive the car they’re given.
“I think this way, if I end up being slower than my team-mates because of whatever reason, then I’m not doing a good enough job. It’s as simple as that. It’s the driver’s job. That’s why we’re here.”
Wolff’s comments weren’t too popular with Verstappen either, prompting a fiery response from the Dutchman. He responded: “Bulls*** comments. It’s not like that. I just drive the car I get to the fastest way possible.
“I’m not there to tell the guys to give me more front end, because that’s how I like it. I’ll just say ‘Design me the fastest car, and I’ll drive around that.’ Every single year it’s just different, every car drives a little bit different.”
