Based on the results of the race, several conclusions can be drawn:
Sergio Perez becomes title contender if Max Verstappen continues to lose focus
Max Verstappen spent most of the weekend focusing on anything but winning the race. He spent the weekend furious with the new weekend format. Then there was the incident with George Russell and the scandal took all the energy. By the time Verstappen found himself on the front row of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday, his energy had run out.
When he finally got past Leclerc, Verstappen expected him to deal with Pérez next, but nothing came of it.
This season at Red Bull we have a very determined Cheko who thinks this is the best opportunity he has ever had to win a title. On the other hand, we have Max, who seems much more distracted than usual.
If Max continues like this, it won’t be a surprise if Perez becomes a championship contender this season.
“Ferrari” is still far inferior to “Red Bull” from a distance
The Ferrari driver’s pole position at the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was very impressive, but it’s hard to see how the same car can’t hold Red Bull in the race. There were times in the race when the Red Bull duo were a second lap quicker than Leclerc.
In general, we can assume that the difference between Red Bull and Ferrari is about half a second.
Ferrari would have acted wisely if they had backed Leclerc, not Sainz
Charles Leclerc finished the Azerbaijan Grand Prix nearly 24 seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz. At the same time, the gap was further reduced, due to the fact that the Spaniard was walking in clean air, since Sainz never got stuck in traffic. That was the difference between the two riders in terms of pure performance.
Wasser is now at the controls of the Ferrari. He must be smart enough to understand that Leclerc is a driver who will bring the team all possible rewards. He should also be aware that rumors of Leclerc’s possible move to Mercedes have intensified in recent weeks.
It would be very wise of him to talk to Charles and start building the whole team around him. Having two equal drivers is good, but Ferrari needs a leader. But so far, Leclerc is not treated as a leader.
Time is running out for the Italian team, let’s hope they act accordingly after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Cutting the DRS zone was a terrible decision
The main straight DRS zone has been reduced by 100m from last season’s point, making it too easy to overtake in 2022.
In the same year, it was not taken into account that the cars are now facing a serious overtaking problem.
We have all seen what happened because of this as there were too many DRS trains in the whole race and not too many overtakes. It’s safe to say that the decision to reduce the DRS zone by 100 m was terrible.
The sprint weekend format failed miserably
The format of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix sprint races somewhat failed. One of the main reasons for this was a reckless attempt to create chaos at every stage of the race weekend.
So, despite the fact that everyone liked the close qualifying battle between Leclerc and the guys from Red Bull, the two races went without too much hassle, were not interesting.
It’s safe to say that an increase in races isn’t always good for the sport, because at some point you’ll get sick of them, especially if they aren’t that interesting.
Source: Sport
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
