Multiple F1 champion Alain Prost has foreseen a crisis in Red Bull. The Frenchman revealed his thoughts recently to the French media after Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez’s competition became stern in recent times.
Writing in his column in L’Equipe, he shared that a “crisis is never far away” as the two Red Bull drivers are expected to go against each other given they are their only competitors now. At least after the last year’s Brazilian GP and this year’s Saudi Arabian GP antics.
📰: David Croft says Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez aren’t at war, but aren’t the best of friends either. Tension arose in Saudi Arabia when Perez called for clarity after Verstappen took the bonus point for the fastest lap. Croft believes there are seeds of… pic.twitter.com/3dKE3MB5pT
— F1 Naija 🇳🇬 (@f1_naija) March 27, 2023
With the rest of the fields to play catch-up, Perez is the only driver who can deal a blow to the Dutchman this season. The French champion also stated that it was a system of favoring one driver, which has worked in the team.
In this case, it was the defending champion. However, he also feels the system is on the verge of failing. As the Mexican is tipped to rebel after coming to know that he can win races.
The former Racing Point driver is not expected to back down, as he has now settled well into the team. With this, a crisis, similar to Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo or Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, is just races away.
Prost worries for McLaren
The 68-year-old has talked about one crisis after another as the new F1 season has gone underway. There were crises on big and small levels. After Red Bull, one more team mentioned where he feels a huge “crisis” exists.
Prost believes McLaren is plunging, day by day, year after year. The Woking-based team is not only rebuilding but also going down with each year, he wrote in his column.
Alain Prost believes the start to this Formula 1 season has shown that “a crisis is never far away” as he says in his column for L’Equipe:
“It’s system of favouring a single driver, Max Verstappen, which has worked so well, is showing its first signs of failure, Sergio Perez,…
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) April 4, 2023
Admittedly, the Papayas are currently mere shadows of what they were in Prost and Senna’s days. Even in 2020, McLaren finished their season P3 in the constructors’ championship, but in 2021 and 2022 they went from P3 to P4, and P5, respectively.
The French champion criticized Mercedes
The four-time F1 world champion has also revealed his concerns for Mercedes. He wrote in his column about the constant work from the Brackley-based team on an innovative concept, which didn’t work.
Admittedly, Mercedes brought in a radical concept on their sidepod, known as zero sidepod. Having thought the new innovation would give maximum advantage, at the end it failed terribly.
Against the usual sidepod design of Red Bull or Ferrari, the Silver Arrows are now forced to change their sidepod and are willing to copy that of Red Bull blatantly to stay alive in the competition.
