“I am fighting for the Championship“, said Sergio Perez after winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. With his double win in Baku, the Mexican driver has reduced the Championship leader Max Verstappen‘s lead to just 6 points. This means Max Verstappen now has a legitimate Championship rival in Perez. And the past says that it’s not good for Red Bull–see how the 2016 season went for Mercedes when their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg fought wheel-to-wheel for the title. 

Perez has played a critical role in Verstappen’s back-to-back World Championships by playing his rear-gunner role. But the Dutchman refused to return the favor when Perez needed it the most in Brazil last year. Ever since the betrayal, the Mexican has refused to play second fiddle to Max Verstappen. The change of attitude is apparent, and things are growing tense in the 2023 season as Perez has started to challenge the 2x champion. 

However, aware of the dangers of teammate rivalry, the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner decided to avoid it. He’s decided to follow Mercedes’ philosophy: to allow drivers to compete against each other rather than playing favoritism. As per Motorsport-total.com, Horner said they do not expect any problems as long as “They make an effort to ensure equality, right down to the question of who drives out of the garage first every weekend. They even change during the debriefing who speaks first.”

He continued, “But as long as both drivers know that both have the same chance and in the end what matters is what they show on the track. And there they also want it to be played out between the two drivers in their own team, not through reliability.”

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Based on Horner’s comments, we’d assume both the Red Bull drivers are treated equally, but his radio messages in Baku say otherwise. 

The favoritism towards Max Verstappen was exposed with a post-race radio message in Baku

Though Red Bull won’t accept it openly, it is ever so clear that Verstappen is the favored son, and Perez is the support driver. Ever since Baku last year, the car has been pushed further away from the Mexican driver and brought closer to Max Verstappen. This year, Red Bull bragged about bringing a car that suits both drivers and treating them equally. But what happened in Baku tells a different story.

In the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Perez led Verstappen to a Red Bull one-two finish. Given Horner’s comments on ‘ensuring equality,’ he should be happy and celebrate Perez’s victory. But instead, he sent a radio message to Verstappen saying, “Yeah, well done, Max. Checo got a little lucky with the Safety Car there, but it’s a long, long season, [and] very, very good points today, so great team result, well done.”

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With this in mind, what do you think are Perez’s chances to challenge Verstappen in 2023?