“Doesn’t change anything” - Max Verstappen feels Sergio Perez is still in the championship hunt despite horror Monaco outing

Max Verstappen has refused to rule out Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez from the 2023 Formula 1 title race.

With four wins this season, Verstappen currently leads the Drivers' Championship with 144 points. Perez trails him in second place, with two race wins and 105 points.

At the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend, Verstappen opened up a big gap at the top of the table by winning the race, while Perez failed to score any points after a crash in qualifying saw him start the race last.

Ahead of the Spanish GP, Verstappen stated that Perez's Monaco performance does not make him the favorite for the F1 title as he still needs to score points consistently in the remainder of the season.

“Obviously the team wanted to score more points but that’s Monaco. I’ve been in that position myself but that [Perez‘s no score] doesn’t change anything for me. You still need to be very consistent and you can’t afford any mistakes. At the moment, it looks like best case you win, worst case you’re second,” he said. (via Total-Motorsport.com)

With Red Bull's car being a step or two ahead of the field, there has been talk of the team sweeping all races this season. Verstappen, however, brushed aside the idea, saying that was an unlikely feat.

“How it looks like, at the moment, I think we can, but that’s very unlikely to happen. There are always things that go wrong, you have a retirement or whatever.

"But, purely on pace, I think at the moment it looks like… But we’ll always get to tracks where maybe it doesn’t work out exactly, or whatever, bad luck in qualifying, you make your own mistakes,” he opined. (via News18)

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Max Verstappen plays down speculations of major Red Bull upgrades in Spain

Max Verstappen has, meanwhile, turned down the hype caused by speculation of Red Bull Racing bringing major upgrades to the car for the Spanish GP.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko had hinted that the team was to try 'something new' for the race at Barcelona, which led to the talk of the RB19 getting even stronger going forward.

Verstappen, however, chalked it down to Marko being a little too excited. He said (via GPFans):

"I'm also looking forward to this weekend, you know, it's a proper race track and this is where a formula one car comes alive. I think Helmut got a bit excited as well. So, I don't know. I mean, we just do our normal program and nothing crazy."