by VALERIO BARRETTA
Verstappen “divides” his 2023
Seeing the final ranking of the 2023 F1 World Championship, it almost makes you smile to think that Sergio Perez (after three victories in the first five races, including the Baku Sprint) was looking forward to a season as a protagonist in which he could annoy Max Verstappen. The ranking after the Baku Grand Prix, however, said exactly this: Verstappen 93, Perez 87. A limited margin: with that pace, the two could have kept the world championship challenge open at least until Las Vegas. Instead, Verstappen could have missed the second part of the season entirely and still be leading the World Championship at the end of the year.
Verstappen's words
According to Verstappen, the turning point of his championship came precisely in the second part of the Baku Grand Prix. Not being able to catch Perez, the Dutchman used the final stint to refine some tools on the technical and driving side of the car, such as differential adjustments, steering inputs and the use of the brakes: “I kept the car a little more under control, changing the behavior of everything around it“, these are his words to The-Race.
“Sometimes it wasn't as easy as it seemed, when braking I was always afraid of locking up. It was about finding the balance, finding the right combination and not damaging the rear tires in the long run. And then each track is a little different in terms of using the car. It was just a matter of putting all these little details together, but in a different way. Because you can set the machine in many different ways to achieve a certain balance“.
“In the middle of the season, when we were on a winning streak, maybe it seemed a little easy. But there have been many times very difficult situations in qualifying or in the race, with the rain, and making the right choices is also fundamental for a team. This was also very, very difficult to deal with. It would have been easy to throw away a race by making the wrong choice. But I think we didn't“, he concluded. “Every year you want to try to improve a little. These are not huge steps, which are impossible in F1. But I think it was, once again, a little bit better year, more consistent and with fewer mistakes. This is the goal I always try to achieve“.
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