07 March 2024 , 07:13
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Max Verstappen has overlooked Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez when predicting this season's top three in the championship.
The Dutchman is looking to win the world championship for the fourth straight year and got off to the ideal start when he claimed a dominant victory in the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Verstappen led home a 1-2 with Perez climbing up from fifth on the grid.
The Mexican, despite being in the same dominant Red Bull as Verstappen, has struggled to match his team-mate over the past few years. During the last three seasons Perez has won five races to Verstappen's 34 - but did finish second in the world championship for the first time last season.
The world champion was asked, during a Q&A when previewing the season on Viaplay, who he thought would finish in the top three, and overlooked his team-mate. “Me, then Lewis (Hamilton), and then Charles (Leclerc)," he replied.
Hamilton last won the world championship in 2020 and is determined to go out on a high in what is his final season for Mercedes. Despite some optimistic signs in practice at Bahrain the Brit struggled to be competitive in the season opener, eventually finishing seventh.
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Leclerc meanwhile is expected to be more competitive than Hamilton, who will become his team-mate next season. The Ferrari driver is among the few drivers to push Verstappen over the past two seasons, but finished behind team-mate Carlos Sainz in Bahrain.
The Monégasque driver was close to matching Verstappen's pace in qualifying in Bahrain but the Ferraris struggled to stick with their race pace. Leclerc is more confident in 2024 than he was last year, but admits that the Red Bulls are still setting the standard.
The world champion believes Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to be those who will run him the closestHe said recently: “Everything that we expected from this car, we got it on the real track, so that is a good thing because that helps us to develop the car on the simulator and everything seems to make sense. Then how competitive we are, it’s very difficult to understand. My personal feeling is that Red Bull is still quite a bit ahead, but we have a much stronger base compared to last year.
“I remember last year, I finished the test and it was very difficult to understand in which direction we developed because the car was just so inconsistent, it was very difficult to understand what were the main weaknesses.
"This year, it’s a very different story. We know exactly where we need to improve, where are the weaknesses, the main weaknesses of this car, and this gives us a bit more hope for the for the development.”