Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has suggested an unlikely sequence of events that would see Sergio Perez take a whopping lead of 100 points over Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in the F1 title race.
Reigning champion Verstappen is firm favourite to clam a third successive world crown this season following Red Bull's ominous start in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Perez held off Verstappen's late surge with a fine performance to win in Jeddah, but his irrepressible teammate maintained an edge in the early drivers' standings by snatching a point for the fast lap in the closing sages of the race.
The early dominance showcased by Red Bull's new RB19 masterpiece has already led to claims within the paddock that Christian Horner's team could win every race this season.
Red Bull's huge pace advantage provides little hope for the chasing pack including Ferrari, with Perez now widely expected to be Verstappen's sole challenger in his bid to retain his title.
But Red Bull's reliability has been cause for concern, with Verstappen forced out of Q2 in Saudi Arabia due to a driveshaft problem. And Ferrari team principal Vasseur thinks it is conceivable that Perez could open up a huge advantage over Verstappen before the Monaco Grand Prix in May, providing the lead driver suffers with more serious mechanical issues.
“Imagine now that Perez wins two more races and Verstappen retires. A gearbox fails and he gets a penalty for the next one,” Vasseur said, as per Formula1news. "After Monaco, Perez is then 100 points ahead of Verstappen. These situations can happen.”
Ferrari have endured reliability issues of their own in the first two races and Vasseur has been faced with a baptism of fire in his new role as team principal at Maranello.
Charles Leclerc was forced to surrender a podium finish after engine failure in Bahrain, while both Ferrari drivers finished behind Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's underperforming Mercedes in a disastrous race in Saudi Arabia.
But Vasseur is remaining optimistic despite early evidence that their new SF-23 vehicle is even less competitive than last season. When asked if Red Bull could be caught, the Frenchman said: “I think so; we have to continue to push. It’s not the right attitude to think about the gap and think about will we be able to close the gap and so on.
“We have to focus on ourselves, we know when we are weak and we have to improve on this one. We will see what is the outcome when we do a decent step. If you start to think about what could be the future potential with development, you are lost."
