Vasseur and the Red Bull ‘problem’
Red Bull has won all 12 races held so far in 2023. Max Verstappen won on ten occasions, Sergio Perez in two, in Saudi Arabia favored by the Dutchman’s knockout in Q2 and in Baku in Azerbaijan, which has always been a hunting ground for Checo who got the better of his illustrious boxmate in all sessions. Just the Azerbaijani weekend was defined by Verstappen as the one in which he learned the most in this 2023 on the use of the Red Bull RB19 with which he opened a streak of eight consecutive successes from Miami to Spa.
What makes the two-time world champion’s roadmap impressive are the gaps inflicted by Verstappen on Perez, who also went through a real tunnel in Qualifying by lining up the unedifying five missed accesses in Q3 from Monaco to Silverstone. Frederic Vasseur he underlined the difference in performance between Verstappen and Perez without wanting to go into too much detail about what is objectively a problem for Red Bull: “It is clear that there is a big difference in performance between the two drivers, but this is above all a problem of the Milton Keynes team in which I don’t want to get involved“the words of the Ferrari team principal in an interview granted to the weekly Autosprint.
Red Bull is the only team to have a first guide
Red Bull has given the ‘keys’ to the team to Max Verstappen who has a valid contract with the Milton Keynes team until 2028 and the Dutch driver is on his way to winning his third consecutive title. In the last 15 years, F1 has recorded three cycles of victories with Red Bull at the ‘extremes’ of the Mercedes domination that began in 2014 and ended in 2021. Verstappen took over the baton from Lewis Hamilton who in turn had inherited it from Sebastian Vettel. The only ‘intruder’ is Nico Rosbergworld champion in 2016 in what was an internal fight at Mercedes between Hamilton and Rosberg.
The example of 2016 is the one that Frederic Vasseur cited at the beginning of the season to corroborate his principle of not having a designated first guide in the team. A policy that the French manager intends to continue as he reiterated to the historic Italian weekly: “We can afford two riders who have the same opportunities and means. If either of them is fighting for the title at some point in the season, I will focus 200% on him. But this is absolutely not the case now. At the beginning of the season there is no number one and number two. Sainz and Leclerc are exactly on the same level, they are equal. It was like this before and it will be like this in the future. Mercedes also treats Russell and Hamilton the same way. And the same goes for Gasly and Ocon or Alonso and Stroll. The only team where there is a first guide is Red Bull“.
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