McLaren has been chipping away at Red Bull’s lead in the championship. After the Italian GP, the gap is down to eight points. Red Bull is nowhere near McLaren in the performance index, and the Woking outfit can easily take the lead after the Azerbaijan GP. Amid the chaos, Sergio Perez suggests that Red Bull’s only title hope is a McLaren slip-up.
According to The Times, Perez said, “We don’t have the momentum. It didn’t go our way the last few weekends, but that can change. The pressure is on McLaren and I think at the moment it’s their championship to lose. I would say that if they don’t win the constructors’ title, we’ve taken the championship from them. But let’s see how the next few races develop.”
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McLaren has been aggressively upgrading the MCL38 since the start of the season. What was predicted to be another dominant season for Red Bull, turned on its head. Everything that McLaren is putting on the car seems to work and boosts the performance.
Meanwhile, Red Bull are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Despite bringing multiple huge upgrades, the car isn’t getting any faster. Mercedes and Ferrari are on the cusp of overtaking the Milton Keynes outfit in the pecking order.
All this has left Perez hoping for McLaren to slip up with Mercedes and Ferrari taking points away from them. Regardless, the McLaren CEO, Zak Brown is firm in the team’s chances of winning the title.
Zak Brown confirms McLaren’s title challenge
Many pundits suggested that McLaren’s blistering pace in Zandvoort was courtesy of the track layout suiting the car and that it would be difficult to replicate the same on other layouts.
However, McLaren has been able to perform well at even the tracks they were expected to be weak at. The team’s CEO is confident in the car and the team’s ability to perform well in the remaining eight races and secure the championship.
According to Sky Sports F1, Brown said, “I don’t see why we can’t be going for the win every race weekend. We are going to have tough competition, but we have shown that our car is good in all kinds of conditions, on all different types of circuits.”
On the other hand, Red Bull hasn’t been particularly strong on street circuits this year. So, with the next two races taking place on the streets of Baku and Singapore, McLaren has a chance at getting a big advantage in the championship.
