The only thing that can realistically topple Max Verstappen is the only other driver in Red Bull overalls.
In a season in which the team are in danger of running away with the championship, Sergio Perez offers just a glimmer of hope of an inter-team battle for the title.
Following the Mexican’s first victory of the season in Saudi Arabia, team boss Christian Horner declared it his best drive in three seasons with the team.
Perez has never won more than two grand prix for Red Bull in a single season. Just four races into 2023, he has already achieved that feat.
Much like in Saudi, he was in a class of his own in Baku to win both the sprint race and the main grand prix (admittedly aided by the safety car timing) and close the gap to his teammate to just six points after which he declared, “I really believe we are in the fight”.
Miami will not decide the season but another victory for Perez would put him ahead albeit with 18 races still to run.
The last time Verstappen was not leading the world championship was at last year’s Spanish Grand Prix in May.
Perez, Verstappen and Red Bull have been here before. Arriving in Miami 12 months ago, his deficit to the now two-time world champion was just five points, although that was skewed by two early DNFs by Verstappen.
The Dutchman duly won in America and promptly disappeared into the distance to win 15 races in all.
There are echoes of the 2016 championship where many predicted Lewis Hamilton would coast to another title only to be rattled and finally derailed by teammate Nico Rosberg.
Much like then, there is no love lost between these two teammates. In Spain, Perez was angry when ordered to let his teammate through while Verstappen refused to do the same in Brazil, declaring “I have my reasons”.
The 33-year-old now needs to get under the skin of his teammate and show he is more than just a street-circuit specialist.
Horner told Standard Sport inside his office at the team’s headquarters before Baku that, on his day, Perez was a match for Verstappen but that he’d yet to sustain it on a consistent basis.
Post-Azerbaijan, the team principal said: “He needs to do it at a normal track now. He’s excelled at street circuits. All his victories for us have been at street tracks. We just need to get him going at the proper circuits too.”
Consistency, according to 2009 world champion Jenson Button, is now the key. He said: “I’m really impressed with Sergio. Max has to be the toughest teammate because he just gets out there and gets it done.
“Consistency is where Sergio has been lacking but, if he can do it in Miami, I think he has a chance to fight for the championship. And I didn’t think I’d be saying that.”
Perez this season appears to have the mental resilience to cope with Verstappen in a way other teammates haven’t done so previously. Others have crumbled in the wake of the Dutchman’s consistent pace.
The big question is can Perez sustain it? Miami will go a long way to answering that.
