By Joe Murphy
Humour me for a moment. Sergio Perez is a contender to win the World Championship in 2024. He has to be. Along with teammate Max Verstappen, the Mexican is in the best car. Should Red Bull keep their edge over the rest of the field, then technically he has the fastest car on the grid.
The car may be more tailored to Max’s style, but a reason why Checo could be in a better position this year than ever before, is because he is more used to the car.
Furthermore, when it comes to Sunday’s, he is remarkably consistent and often recovers after a poor Saturday qualifying session. The problem is that he has some poor performance or bad luck on the Saturday when it really matters in terms of position.
The final reason is that it is surely a case of ‘now or never’ for Checo. It certainly isn’t beyonf the realms of possibility that a poor season results in Red Bull parting ways with the driver they’ve had for the last few years. Should the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes close, Red Bull will understandably want a driver that can help support Max, as supposed to the Dutchman having to fight two cars single handedly. It’s all about aiding the strategy and, for a large part of 2023, Checo wasn’t able to do that.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter as Max was so far ahead and often had the luxury of a pit stop window. It could be argued that this extra pressure could hinder Perez, but it’s conceivable that he has the experience necessary to deal with such a situation.
Is it a far fetched scenario that Sergio Perez goes one better then the second place he achieved last year? Possibly. But there will not be a better time for there to be a Mexican World Champion in Formula 1, than next December.
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