Why Perez’s best race proved to be his F1 2023 downfall

In sporting contests, the killer blow often comes when your opponent is on the ropes. Just as your rival’s hope of a turnaround begins to fade, there is no better time to go in for the kill.

So, when it comes to reflecting on the ebb and flow of the 2023 F1 season, and the killer punches dealt out by Max Verstappen to eradicate Sergio Perez’s threat for the title, what is interesting to note is that he turned the campaign into a one-man show by unleashing the biggest blow when his team-mate was at his absolute peak.

While recency bias makes us think that Verstappen has had an easy cruise against team-mate this year, the season did not actually start that way. The RB19 was pretty well settled for both drivers at the start of the year, especially with the new front tyres adding a bit more bite, and Perez clearly had a degree of confidence that he had been lacking in the tail end of 2022.

While perhaps being under no illusion that he would be able to beat Verstappen at every race track and in every circumstance, there was a sense that when circumstance favoured him – especially on street circuits where he has had an edge – then the chance was there to pull together a title challenge. And if he could make sure he won those races where the opportunity was there to do it, and limited the damage at venues where it wasn’t, then why not think about that world championship crown?

That is, indeed, how the season began. Close enough in Bahrain, he then grabbed that win in Saudi Arabia before falling foul of a brake issue in qualifying in Melbourne that left him at the back of the grid before a pretty decent charge through the field to finish fifth. Then came his best weekend of the year.

In Baku, he triumphed in the sprint race and then was sublime in the main grand prix – matching team-mate Verstappen tenth for tenth as he seemed perfectly on top of the RB19. It was a result that left him just six points down on Verstappen and signalled him out as a serious threat for the title – especially considering how much ground he had lost in Melbourne.

Indeed, when he walked into the paddock at the following race in Miami, there was the aura of a man who was knuckling down for the world championship battle. As he sat talking to a packed media scrum outside the Red Bull hospitality building in the middle of the Hard Rock Stadium pitch on the Thursday before the race, all discussions were about the steps he made, and the title fight he was preparing for.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Perez won the sprint and grand prix in Azerbaijan but has since failed to finish any race at the front

Then, when Verstappen found luck go against him in qualifying in Miami due to a late red flag that meant he couldn’t get his final Q3 run in and he ended up ninth on the grid, with Perez on pole, this seemed the moment where momentum perhaps appeared to be shifting towards the Mexican.

How wrong that assessment was. As Verstappen cooly and calmly – as has been his trademark in 2023 – worked his way through the field in the grand prix before snatching the lead on lap 21 and roaring on the win, this was the true turning point of the season.

For Perez, this was a crushing blow. If he could not win a grand prix, especially a street race, in the RB19 starting eight places ahead of his team-mate, then what hope did he ever have of beating Verstappen at venues where he knew he would be on the back foot?

Miami served to ramp up the pressure and highlighted the need for Perez to lift his own game – which in turn perhaps resulted in him pushing too hard, which triggered mistakes, and further derailed his title hopes. His crash in Monaco qualifying was devastating, and then came tracks like Spain and Montreal that were always more likely to suit Verstappen anyway. By this stage of the year, the title fight was all but over.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner agrees that Miami was the moment that shattered Perez’s confidence, and triggered the spiral that has resulted in him not looking like threatening for a win ever since

Red Bull boss Christian Horner agrees that Miami was the moment that shattered Perez’s confidence, and triggered the spiral that has resulted in him not looking like threatening for a win ever since.

“With any sportsman, mental strength always plays a key role,” said Horner in Austin last weekend. “I think there was a decisive moment this year, which is probably in Miami, where Checo had an, if you'd like, open goal.

“He'd won two races in Azerbaijan, and in Saudi, and you can see his confidence was high. Max winning that race, having been caught out by red flag in qualifying, starting down in ninth and whatever lap it was that he took the lead, within a very short period of time.

“Mentally that was quite a brutal one for Checo to deal with. On top of that came Monaco, and then things compounded. Max is just relentless. He's then just hitting aces every race from there onwards.”

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Verstappen held nothing back when passing Perez mid-race in Miami

But beyond Miami being the clear blow for Perez, the seeds of what happened there were actually sown in Azerbaijan – it was the manner of his brilliant success there that proved the catalyst for Verstappen to become even stronger.

Being hungry to win everything, Verstappen did not especially like playing second fiddle to Perez around the Baku streets. So, as he sat behind his team-mate over the second half of that race, he didn’t just sit there and accept his fate. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to try to understand exactly what was happening – and turn it to his advantage.

Verstappen set about trying to get better comprehension of why his tyre management had not been as strong as he would have liked, and also the impact of diff, brake and engine settings to help him work out what was needed to extract more from the car. He has been open about the knowledge gained in those laps being so important for laying the foundations for being so strong afterwards.

“It was when I was behind after the pitstop with the safety car, I knew it was going to be very hard to pass,” Verstappen said recently. “I was trying a lot of things, and some worked, so that is why it was an up and down stint.

“I was trying a lot of different combinations on the wheel to get more of an understanding because it was still so early in the season, and we are still not fully on top of a few things. Towards the end of the race I found my rhythm and preferred balance, and it helped to find more of an edge.”

That Baku knowledge gained from defeat proved absolutely critical in turning the tables on Perez just one race later, with a win that perhaps had much bigger implications than realised at the time. It’s little wonder, looking at how Perez’s biggest success proved to be the moment that sent his campaign off the rails, that Horner sees no harder place to be in F1 than alongside Verstappen.

“Being Max Verstappen's team-mate is probably the hardest job in the pitlane,” he said. “He's operating at such a high level, and it's relentless. So, the mental aptitude that you need to be able to deal with that when every time you see a piece of data, it's like, ‘wow, how did he do that?’ That takes a certain strength of character to be able to deal with that.”

In 2023, Perez didn’t have the strength of character to match Verstappen for the duration. The question now is whether he can rediscover that pre-Miami form and keep it going.

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Can Perez rediscover and maintain his early form?