McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes the Formula 1 championship fight would be “wide open” if Red Bull had two Sergio Perez’s in the car.
Max Verstappen currently holds a mammoth lead in the Drivers’ Championship after the opening 12 rounds, winning 10 of the races staged so far this year.
The Dutchman sits 125 points ahead of Red Bull team-mate Perez in the standings, who started the year strong by winning two out of the four opening races.
However, Perez endured a difficult run of form by failing to advance into Q3 on five consecutive occasions.
Amid complaints that the 2023 season is too predictable, Brown says that the season would be much more exciting if Verstappen wasn’t in the equation.
“As much as Red Bull’s killing everyone right now… it’s really Max is killing everyone right now,” Brown told ESPN.
“If they had two Sergios in the car, with all due respect, this championship would kind of be wide open. So you’ve got something pretty special going on with Max and Red Bull.”
Perez currently sits 40 points ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in third place.
Alonso has scored a handful of podiums this year, as has seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, with just a single point separating the duo.
Brown added: ”If you take Max out of it and take everyone who’s finished second this year and give them a win, it would be a pretty competitive, exciting championship.
“We’ve had a second, Aston’s had a second, Ferrari’s had a second, Mercedes has had a second, Sergio’s had a second. You would have five teams that would have won a race this year.
“As soon as we all catch up to Red Bull I think that’s going to be the state of play for Formula 1.”
Keyword: Brown: F1 championship wide open ‘if Red Bull had two Sergios’