Verstappen has had priority at Red Bull thus far – but Perez isn't happy with the situation
Red Bull
They say that the first person in Formula 1 that you have to beat is your team-mate, and that might never be truer than in a world championship which overall is more closely matched than ever.
Sergio Perez bemoaned a lack of support from Red Bull colleague Max Verstappen late last year. Now, on the the eve of 2023, he has said he won’t be there to back the world champion if the same happens again.
It’s one of the many simmering rivalries among this year’s team-mates that threaten to boil over at the first sign of an unfavourable strategy call or aggressive manoeuvre.
Infighting likely cost Perez second place in last year’s title race, and has shaped the destiny of championships: Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton’s tense year at McLaren eased Kimi Raikkonen‘s route to the 2007 crown — by a point.
Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet; Rene Arnoux and Alain Prost; Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann were also warring team-mates who lost championships by the narrowest of margins to rivals.
As ever this year, drivers have been putting on a united front in posed pre-season pictures. The new Haas pairing of Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen fell out on camera as the latter gibed “Suck my *****” in 2017, but the pair now claim they have kissed and made up in racing team-mate terms.
Can that withstand the first on-track battle? Or will team-mate tensions rise at Ferrari, Mercedes or Aston Martin first? Here are the rivalries threatening to flare up in 2023.
How long will it stay all smiles at Red Bull?
When Max Verstappen refused to give back sixth place to Sergio Perez at last season’s Brazilian GP after being previously allowed to attack the car ahead, unrest soon broke out at Red Bull.
Perez, who felt Verstappen owed him one after helping back Lewis Hamilton into him at the 2021 Abu Dhabi title decider, said that the Dutchman had shown “who he really is”.
After two F1 world titles, Max Verstappen believes that a team-mate who can’t match him week in, week out, is only a support driver. And that creates a tension between him and Perez for 2023, writes Mark Hughes
Verstappen hit back, saying he had his reasons and that the team were well aware of them – it turned out to relate to Perez’s crash in qualifying for that year’s Monaco Grand Prix, which prevented Verstappen from setting a quicker lap than fourth. The Dutchman suspected it was a deliberate shunt to bring out the red flags and secure pole — from which Perez won the race.
The tension has surfaced once more: on the eve of the 2023 Bahrain GP, Perez told Fox Mexico he wouldn’t be so helpful if the same was not reciprocated in future.
“It’s always important to work as a team and obviously if I see that I don’t receive support when I need it, I won’t give it either,” he said.
Though the pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz has been mostly harmonious up to now, they have had their flashpoints.
Sainz radioed in to complain when Leclerc made his life difficult at Saudi ’21 – “Cmon, Charles, don’t do this” – before the Spaniard refused to commit to a restart strategy that would have favoured his team-mate at Silverstone last year.
Sainz was ordered to back the pack up behind Leclerc as the race was about to get underway again in the late stages to let his team-mate build a lead, but the Spaniard, who was on newer and softer tyres, refused.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have had a harmonious relationship – apart from when fighting for the win
“But guys, I’m under pressure from Hamilton, please don’t ask these things,” he said. “Please, stop inventing.”
Sainz eventually overtook and won, with Leclerc clearly furious. Though it ended up being just one error in a catalogue of strategic mistakes for Ferrari that season, similar outcomes this year could lead to more disquiet from the Monégasque.
Though the relationship between Mercedes’ two charges has been sound so far, Hamilton has had run-ins with team-mates in the past.
Speaking to Adam Cooper in this month’s magazine, George Russell has opened up on his relationship with Lewis Hamilton
His famously none-more-toxic relationship with Fernando Alonso at McLaren in 2007 ultimately ended in tears with both drivers missing out on the title by a point.
He also tweeted Jenson Button’s telemetry during the 2011 Belgian GP weekend when he was unhappy with fortunes on his side of the garage, causing uproar in Woking, and famously developed a collaborative habit with friend-turned-enemy Nico Rosberg of smashing up Mercedes F1 cars at the worst possible moments.
Summarily vanquishing Valtteri Bottas in recent years has meant all is well on Planet Lewis, but if the Mercedes momentum starts to move George Russell‘s way in 2023, things soon might start to hot up.
Similar to Hamilton and Rosberg, new Alpine team-mates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon started out as best friends before things went south, however in this pair’s case they got started early and fell out in their karting years.
Ocon and Gasly – enemies reunited?
Alpine
“The relationship unfortunately got a lot worse when we started to fight for the World Cup,” Gasly said to Tom Clarkson in 2018. “I really remember one weekend in 2010 in Portugal, he literally cut the corner and hit me in the last heat before the pre-final, because I was going to start second or third and he didn’t really like it. We finished 20th and 21st.
“At that time we used to not go training anymore. We then had many battles in Formula Renault, contact bouncing wheels. There are many things which happened which I did not really like.”
The pair now claim to have made up, but will the rift re-emerge at Alpine?
Lando Norris has been telling his McLaren team for several seasons now that his car has an inherent flaw which makes it difficult to extract maximum speed.
The tricky designs effectively finished off Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career, and now the 2023 version appears off the pace in pre-season testing.
With these frustrations at the forefront of his mind, will Norris be able to stomach it if new hotshot team-mate Oscar Piastri starts to challenge him as well?
Fiery Fernando Alonso has never been one to shirk a fight – or a team-mate rivalry. The Spaniard’s commitment has often seen his teams wrap themselves at him, leaving the other driver in the cold — rarely a problem in seasons when he is far ahead anyway.
Tarso Marques, Alex Yoong, Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella were all seen off with ease, but things became a bit awkward when Alonso met his match in the shape of new-for 2007 McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
The Aston Martin AMR23 was the surprise package of testing: Fernando Alonso and Mike Krack analyse their push to the front of the F1 field
Cue the famous Macca meltdown as the two fought bitterly, Alonso claiming the team favoured Hamilton before initiating spygate by threatening to reveal evidence, resulting in a $100m fine for the Woking squad.
Alonso also came to blows on track with Alpine colleague Esteban Ocon last year, sarcastically referring to him as “our friend” over team radio.
At Aston, you’d expect Alonso to toe his paymaster’s line with Lawrence Stroll’s son Lance driving for the team – but the Spaniard has never done things in a conventional manner.
Alonso will believe he knows what’s best in getting the team to the front – if Lance obstructs this in any way, there are bound to be fireworks.
F1-returnee Nico Hülkenberg and new Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen claim to have buried the hatchet, but have they really?
Nico Hülkenberg’s F1 career has been long and eventful – but not overly successful at the highest level. He talks about his comeback with a Haas team on the up
K-Mag is known for being uncompromising on track, with the German – back in Renault days – saying the Dane was the “most unsporting guy on the grid”.
After Magnussen told him to “suck my *****, honey” a new classic F1 phrase was coined, but the shade hadn’t been without fire. Many other drivers have complained about Magnussen, who often collided with fellow Haas racer Romain Grosjean also – though he’s hardly a shrinking violet either.
Haas will hope there’s no more intra-team warfare, but with two quick team-mates out for themselves, you can never be too sure.
Though Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries have no previous history, things could hot up in 2023. Tsunoda was the darling of Red Bull for a short period, but inconsistent performances have put him under pressure since, with the Japanese man needing to deliver for 2023 to have an F1 future.
Joining him this year is 2021 Formula E champion De Vries. The Dutchman impressed on his Italian GP cameo for Williams last year, coming in ninth, and was thus snapped up by Red Bull.
Though coming across as cheeky and affable off track, in the cockpit Tsunoda is a fiery customer. With both drivers looking to replace Perez when his Red Bull contract eventually runs out at the end of 2024, will AlphaTauri‘s kids keep a lid on it?
Further down the grid, things aren’t quite so feisty, but in the pressure cooker world of F1 you never know what might spring up.
Alfa Romeo’s iceman Valtteri Bottas has been a mentor figure to young Zhou Guanyu, whilst Williams’ Alex Albon is unlikely to rock the boat should things get competitive with Logan Sargeant.
In a series where every driver is fighting for their future though, tension is never far away from rising.
