Jenson Button believes the 2023 F1 world championship is a signed and sealed affair for Max Verstappen, insisting Sergio Perez will never catch his Red Bull teammate.
Verstappen's 41st career in the sport, achieved in Montreal last weekend, and another subdued performance by Perez has handed a 69-point lead to the Dutchman, a seemingly impossible gap to bridge for the Mexican in Button's view.
"When Max sees his team-mate have a tough weekend, it just helps his confidence," said the Briton, quoted by Motorsport.com.
"And three weekends – there’s no catching Max now, he’s gone, and the championship is definitely his.
"What happens to Checo? Hopefully, he bounces back. We all want people to take it to Max, we want to see good racing from Checo.
"He’s really quick, it’s just the inconsistency that definitely hurts him."
For the third consecutive race weekend, Perez failed to reach the final stage of qualifying, while his points tally amounted to 21 in the last three races, which compares to Verstappen's hat-trick of wins during the same period.
It's a spectacular shortfall for Perez, and yet the Mexican is armed with the same dominant piece of equipment as his teammate.
"I think he just needs a good weekend to just lift his confidence," argued Red Bull team boss Christian Horner after the Canadian Grand Prix.
"He’s had three difficult weekends and three difficult Saturdays that then puts you on the back foot on a Sunday.
"We’ve seen what Checo’s capable of only a month or two ago, I think he just needs to have a strong weekend to find that confidence and then I have no doubt he’ll be back."
Perez is contracted to Red bull until the end of 2024. Although Button sees no change to the team's line-up in the short-term, the 2009 F1 world champion believes Red Bull could still choose to terminate Perez's deal prematurely, at the end of the season, if the Mexican doesn't soon get his act together
"Who would you put in there? It’s a tricky one," Button admitted.
"Obviously, they have Daniel Ricciardo there as an ambassador, but I don’t know if they’re willing to put him in that seat.
"Do they take someone from AlphaTauri, and if so, who would it be? De Vries hasn’t really been as competitive as they thought and would you put Tsunoda in the A-team?
"It’s a tricky one for them, but I’ve got to feel for Checo. Three races on the bounce he’s been below par and that’s tough."
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