Max Verstappen has dismissed the idea that Red Bull tailor and develop the car to suit his desires after Sergio Perez’s father claimed that the Dutchman ‘could be fifth or sixth place’ if he was driving for another team and that his team-mate was signed with the intention of being a number two driver.
Perez and Verstappen started the 2023 campaign on relatively equal footing with both drivers taking two race wins from the first four rounds of the season, setting up an intriguing intra-Red Bul title fight.
However, after Perez claimed pole position in Miami the momentum swung the way of Verstappen, and the 26-year-old romped to ten consecutive Grand Prix victories, making F1 history and putting the World Championship beyond debate. His team-mate, meanwhile, failed to win a single race during the remainder of the season.
During the 2023 season, Perez’s father laid down his beliefs about how the Red Bull team operates, stating: “The car is set for Max because he drives with all the grip at the front and Checo has done it all the time with the grip at the back. The position Checo is in is the one he was hired for, second place.
“There is only one champion and you have to understand that. He has to work for it and respect it. All this was built for Max to be a champion and you have to understand and respect it. If he moved to another team he could be fourth or sixth.”
However, when questioned about his driving style and the impact it could have on team-mates, Verstappen told Motorsport.com: “When people ask you: ‘What is your driving style?’, I can’t tell you because it’s about being able to adapt to certain situations or what the car likes as well.
“What do I want? I want more grip. There’s a lot of things that you want, some things are not realistic. So, I just adapt to the car that I get given. Throughout the year, the team just applies upgrades to the car to make it faster. Not to try and follow a certain balance direction or whatever.
“It’s just overall load, overall grip, that you gain from upgrades. I’m quite happy with the behaviour of the car, but if the car is a little bit more understeery I have to adapt my driving to that. Or if it’s more oversteery it’s the same way.”
