塞尔吉奥·佩雷斯预测made as Red Bull send firm F1 2024 message – F1 news round-up

Jamie Woodhouse 10 Oct 2023 10:00 PM

Red Bull's Sergio Perez pulls a disapproving face. — Red Bull driver Sergio Perez pulls a disapproving face.

It is time to bring you up to speed with the latest key headlines from another busy day in the world of Formula 1.

While times are very tough right now for Sergio Perez, he has been give the vote of confidence by former Red Bull driver Mark Webber in a key Lewis Hamilton battle, though team boss Christian Horner has made his expectations clear heading into F1 2024.

All this and more, so let us get stuck into the action…

Mark Webber backs Sergio Perez to see off Lewis Hamilton

Considering how dominant the Red Bull RB19 has looked in the hands of Max Verstappen, it seems crazy to think that the other Red Bull driver is not even certain to finish as runner-up.

Having dropped 25 points to Hamilton over three races, Hamilton is now only 30 points behind Perez with five rounds of F1 2023 remaining.

“That’ll be pretty brutal if he tracks him down,” Webber told Channel 4.

But, Webber’s prediction on that Hamilton-Perez battle spells good news for Red Bull’s hopes of a first one-two finish in the Drivers’ standings.

“I think Sergio will still nip it,” he added.

Christian Horner warns Sergio Perez to close the gap

This Hamilton challenge is denying Perez the chance to park his nightmare F1 2023 campaign somewhere at the very back of his mind, with important business still to attend to before he can plot a return to form in F1 2024.

Red Bull team boss Horner is though already looking ahead to F1 2024, and warns the increasing gulf in performance between Perez and Verstappen must be left behind.

“Mercedes, it’s very tight between their pair, Ferrari is very tight between their pair, Oscar [Piastri], what a great job he’s doing as a rookie, very tight with Lando [Norris],” Horner told Sky F1.

“We really need Checo to get into that window.”

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Eddie Jordan “bored stiff” with Max Verstappen dominance

With Verstappen now on 14 grand prix wins out of 17 for F1 2023, his own record of 15 in a season could well be broken just one year on.

But, while former F1 team boss Jordan has waxed lyrical about the extreme talent of Verstappen, he is not finding his Formula 1 dominance very fun to watch.

“I’m bored stiff, he toldTalkSPORT, as he went on to discuss how such statements were not made about the Ayrton Senna era due to the challenge he received from his team-mates.

尼科-罗斯伯格tears apart Lance Stroll Qatar “excuse”

While Verstappen is a driver firing on all cylinders with extreme confidence, the same absolutely cannot be said for Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll right now.

Stroll was one of the drivers to suffer from track limits penalties in Qatar, the Canadian blaming that on the mid-race weekend alteration of the boundaries, while several drivers fell ill as a result of the extreme temperatures during the Grand Prix, Stroll saying he was fading in and out of consciousness.

2016 World Champion Rosberg was having none of it.

“All the other drivers managed to do without penalties – or many of them – especially the best ones out there today,” he told Sky F1.

“So it’s not really an excuse, I think, to still have so many mistakes to get the penalties that he did.”

Pirelli beat Bridgestone to new F1 tyre deal

Altering track limits was part of the response to micro tears being found in the sidewalls of the Pirelli compounds in Qatar, with drivers also given maximum stint lengths come Grand Prix Sunday for each set of tyres, these measures successfully avoiding the punctures that were seen at the Lusail International Circuit back in 2021.

Valuable lessons learned then for Pirelli and the FIA as they look for solutions going forward, and Pirelli’s status as Formula 1’s tyre supplier has now been secured until at least 2027, with the Italian brand having seen off a familiar name of F1’s past in Bridgestone.